Satellite Communication Lecture-1

Dr. Shahab Ahmad Niazi

Satellite Communications
Introduction

General concepts Needs, advantages, and disadvantages Satellite characteristics Orbits Earth coverage System components and design Power sources Communication characteristics
Spectrum and Bandwidth Channel capacity Frequency and Wavelength Path losses

Antennas and beam shaping

Text
Course Book
Satellite Communications, 4th Edition Dennis Roddy Reference Books 1. Satellite Communications, 2nd Edition, T. Pratt, C. Bostian, and J. Allnut. 2. Satellite Communications Systems, 5th Ed. Gerard Maral, Michel Bousquet.

Why Satellite Communication?

The Earth is a sphere & The microwave frequencies travel in straight line but to connect two regions very far away on the two side of the sphere, the link requires lot of repeaters because of Earths curvature. A single satellite can do the magic linking the continents with one repeater.

Motivation to use the Sky

Regions of Space
Space is defined as a place free from obstacles It can be divided into three regions:
Air Space -> region below 100 km from earths surface Outer Space -> also called cosmic space and ranges from 100 km up till 42, 000 km. It is mostly used by communication satellites. Deep Space -> Regions beyond 42,000 km fall in this category

Satellite
It is a repeater which receives signal from Earth at one frequency, amplify it & transmit it back to Earth at other frequency.

EARTH STATION
There are two earth station in a simple Satellite communication link. One transmits the signal to satellite called transmitting Earth station. The other receives the signal from satellite called receiving Earth Station.

UPLINK & DOWN LINK

The communication link from Transmitting earth station to satellite is called Up-link. The communication link from satellite To receiving earth station is called Downlink.

What is a satellite system?

A satellite system consists of one or more satellites, a ground-based station to control the operation of the system, and a user network earth stations that provides the interface facilities for the transmission and reception of terrestrial communications traffic.

How a satellite works?

A satellite stays in orbit because the gravitational pull of the earth balanced by the centripetal force of the revolving satellite. One Earth station transmits the signals to the satellite at Up link frequency. Up link frequency is the frequency at which Earth station is communicating with a satellite. The satellite transponder process the signal and sends it to the second Earth station at another frequency called downlink frequency.

Advantages of Satellite Communications over Terrestrial Communications

The coverage area greatly exceeds. Transmission cost of a satellite is independent of the distance from the center of the coverage area. Satellite-to-satellite communication is very precise. Higher bandwidths are available for use.

Disadvantages of Satellite Communications

Launching satellites into orbits is costly. Satellite bandwidth is gradually becoming used up. The propagation delay is larger.

Active and Passive Satellites

Active satellites are used for linking and also for processing the signals.
The linkage is known as bent pipe technology where processing like frequency translation, power amplification etc take place. Active satellites employ Regenerative Technology which consists of demodulation, processing, frequency translation, switching and power amplification are carried out. Block used for this purpose is called transponder.

Passive satellites do-not have on-board processing and are just used to link two stations through space.
Low cost - Loss of power not useful for communication applications.

Historical Overview
1945 Theorist named Clarke studied that satellite orbiting in equatorial orbit at radius of approx. 42,000 km would look as if stationary if moving at a specific speed. 3 satellites at a space of 120 degree apart can cover the whole world. Evolution of the concept of GEO

1950s Putting the pieces together:

1956 -Trans-Atlantic cable opened (about 12 telephone channels per operator). 1957 First man-made satellite launched by former USSR (Sputnik1, LEO). It was used to identify atmospheric density of various orbital layers. It provided data about radio signal distribution in ionosphere. 1958 First US satellite launched (SCORE). First voice communication established via satellite (LEO, lasted 35 days in orbit).

Historical Overview
1960s First satellite communications: 1960 First passive communication satellite (Large balloons, Echo I and II). 1962: First active communication satellite (Telstar I , MEO). 1963: First satellite into geostationary (GEO) orbit (Syncom1, communication failed). 1964: International Telecomm. Satellite Organization (INTELSAT) created. 1965 First successful communications GEO (Early Bird / INTELSAT 1).

Historical Overview
1970s GEO Applications Development, DBS: 1972 First domestic satellite system operational (Canada). 1975 First successful direct broadcast experiment (USA-India). 1977 A plan for direct broadcast satellites (DBS) assigned by the ITU 1979 International Mobile Satellite Organization (Inmarsat) established.

Historical Overview
1980s GEO Applications Expanded, Mobile: 1981 First reusable launch vehicle flight. 1982 International maritime communications made operational. 1984 First direct-to-home broadcast system operational (Japan). 1987 Successful trials of land-mobile communications (Inmarsat). 1989-90 Global mobile communication service extended to land mobile and aeronautical use (Inmarsat)

Historical Overview
1990+s NGSO applications development and GEO expansion 1990-95: Proposals of non-geostationary (NGSO) systems for mobile communications. Continuing growth of VSATs around the world. Spectrum allocation for non-GEO systems. Continuing growth of DBS. DirectTV created. 1997: Launch of first batch of LEO for hand-held terminals (Iridium). Voice-service portables and paging-service pocket size mobile terminals launched (Inmarsat). 1998-2000: Mobile LEO systems initiate service and fail afterwards (Iridium,Globalstar).

Altitudes of orbits above the earth

There are 3 common types of satellite based on altitude, i.e. GEO, MEO & Orbit Altitude Missions possible LEO
Low-Earth orbit LEO 250 to 1,500 km Earth observation, meteorology, telecommunications (constellations) Telecommunications (constellations), positioning, science Telecommunications, positioning, science Telecommunications Interplanetary missions

Medium-Earth orbit MEO Geostationary Earth orbit GEO Elliptical orbit Hyperbolic orbit

10,000 to 30,000 km 35,786 km Between 800 and 27,000 km Up to several million km

ITU Frequency Spectrum Allocations

Communication Satellites
Another issue is the presence of the Van Allen belts - layers of highly charged particles trapped by the earth's magnetic field Any satellite flying within them would be destroyed fairly quickly by the highlyenergetic charged particles trapped there by the earth's magnetic field Hence there are three regions in which satellites can be placed safely - illustrated in the following figure

Communication Satellites

Communication satellites and some of their properties, including altitude above the earth, round-trip delay time and number of satellites needed for global coverage.

Communication Satellites

Geostationary Satellites
Each downward beam can be focused on a small geographical area, so multiple upward and downward transmissions can take place simultaneously Typically, the spot beams are elliptically shaped, and can be as small as a few hundred km in diameter A communication satellite for the United States typically has one wide beam for the contiguous 48 states, plus spot beams for Alaska and Hawaii

VSAT systems
VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) a satellite communication system that serves home and business users for data, voice, and video signals Tiny terminals have 1-meter or smaller antennas (versus 10 m for a standard GEO antenna) and can put out about 1 watt of power. A VSAT end user has a box that interfaces between the user's computer and an outside antenna with a transceiver. The tranceiver receives /sends a signal to a satellite transponder

Medium-Earth Orbit Satellites

The MEO (Medium-Earth Orbit) satellites are between the two Van Allen belts Takes something like 6 hours to circle the earth As MEO are lower than the GEOs (typically 16,000 km above Earth), they have a smaller footprint on the ground and require less powerful transmitters to reach them Currently they are not used for telecommunications but in navigation systems

Medium-Earth Orbit Satellites

The 24 GPS (Global Positioning System) satellites orbiting at about 18,000 km are American but free to use by anyone Russia is using Glonass 24 satellites orbiting at 19,100 km European Union works on Galileo 30 satellite MEO navigation system orbiting at 23200 km - global navigation satellite system (GNSS) (2019) China is building Compass 35 satellites 5 GEO and 30 MEO at 21,100 km (10 in use and offering services now) (2020)

Low-Earth Orbit Satellites

A Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is generally defined as an orbit below an altitude of approximately 2,000 kilometers and above 160 kilometers almost all human spaceflights have taken place in LEO (-) large numbers of LEO are needed for a complete system due to their rapid motion (26,000 to 27,000 km per hour) (+) satellites are very close to the earth, so the ground stations do not need much power (+) the round-trip delay is only a few milliseconds

Low-Earth Orbit Satellites

Because these LEO orbits are not geostationary, a network (or "constellation") of satellites is required to provide continuous coverage LEOs are used for a variety of civil, scientific and military roles including Earth observation, radar, optical, telecoms and demonstrator Some use as many as 66 satellites (Iridium satellite phones)

Low-Earth Orbit Satellites

The Iridium satellite constellation - group of satellites providing voice and data coverage to satellite phones, pagers and integrated transceivers over Earth's entire surface Originally developed in 1992, services started in 1998, bankrupted in August 1999 and subsequently restarted in March 2001 (513 000 subscribers in 2011) Satellites are at a height of approximately 781 km Customers include the maritime, aviation, and oil exploration industries, as well as people traveling in parts of the world lacking a telecommunications infrastructure (e.g., deserts, mountains, jungles, and some Third World countries)

Iridium
The Iridium satellites are in circular polar orbits They are arranged in north-south necklaces, with one satellite every 32 degrees of latitude With six satellite necklaces, the entire earth is covered Each satellite can support up to 1100 concurrent phone calls and weighs about 680 kg

Iridium
Each satellite has a maximum of 48 cells (spot beams), with a total of 1628 cells over the surface of the earth Each satellite has a capacity of 3840 channels, or 253,440 in all Some of these are used for paging and navigation, while others are used for data and voice An interesting property of Iridium is that communication between distant customers takes place in space, with one satellite relaying data to the next one A caller at the North Pole contacts a satellite directly overhead - the call is relayed via other satellites and finally sent down to the called at the South Pole.

Globalstar
Globalstar - based on 48 LEO satellites but uses a different switching scheme than that of Iridium (relays calls from satellite to satellite, which requires sophisticated switching equipment in the satellites) Globalstar uses a traditional bent-pipe design - a call originating at the North Pole is sent back to earth and picked up by the large ground station The call is then routed via a terrestrial network to the ground station nearest the callee and delivered by a bent-pipe connection as shown Advantage - puts much of the complexity on the ground, where it is easier to manage (412300 subscribers in 2010)

Teledesic
Teledesic was as high-speed, wireless, switched global network -an IP-based system designed to support data, voice and video at the same quality level as fiber-based terrestrial systems - a global "Internetin-the-Sky providing broadband and Internet access Originally (1995) planning 840 active satellites with inorbit spares at an altitude of 700 km, Scaled (1997) to 288 active satellites at 1400 km Officially suspended its satellite construction work on October 1, 2002 Funding from Microsoft (investing US$30 million for an 8.5% stake), Craig McCaw, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal, and for achieving allocation on the Ka-band frequency spectrum for nongeostationary services

Highly elliptical orbit

HEO an elliptic orbit with a low-altitude (about 1,000 kilometres) perigee and a high-altitude (over 35,786 kilometres) apogee Advantage - long dwell times at a point in the sky during the approach to, and descent from, apogee - phenomenon known as apogee dwell (acts like GEO) (3-4 hours can receive signal with 0.6 m antenna) Used by Sirius Satellite Radio (operating in North America), the Molniya communication satelites (at least 3) (Russia),

Satellite Applications
Communication: The main application for satellites today is in communication. Communication satellites act as relay stations in the sky and permit reliable long-distance communication worldwide. Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) service: This is a TV signal distribution system designed to distribute signals directly to consumers.

Satellite Applications
Satellite Cell Phones. Satellite-based cellular telephone service is under development. The proposed new systems use low-earth-orbit satellites to perform the relay services to the main telephone system or to make connection directly between any two cellular telephones using the system.

Satellite Applications
Digital Satellite Radio: One of the newest satellite applications is in digital satellite radio or the digital audio radio service (DARS). This service provides hundreds of channels of music, news, sports, and talk radio to car portable and home radios. It provides full continuous coverage of the station you select wherever you are in the United States. Its digital transmission techniques ensure highquality stereo sound that is immune to noise. The satellites transmit other information such as song title and artist, type of music, and other data, which are displayed on a LCD screen.

Satellite Applications
Surveillance satellites can look at the earth and transmit what they see back to ground stations for a wide variety of purposes, including military intelligence, meteorological applications, and mapping. Satellite navigation systems can provide global coverage unavailable with landbased systems satellites.

Global Positioning System

The Global Positioning System (GPS), also known as Navstar, is a satellite-based navigation system that can be used by anyone with an appropriate receiver to pinpoint his or her location on earth. GPS was developed by the US Air Force for the Department of Defense as a continuous global radio navigation system. The GPS system consists of three major segments: the space segment, the control segment, and the user segment.

Global Positioning System

Space Segment
The space segment is the constellation of satellites orbiting above the earth that contain transmitters which send highly accurate timing information to GPS receivers on earth.
The GPS consists of 24 main operational satellites and 3 active spare satellites arranged in six orbits of 3 or 4 satellites each.

Global Positioning System

Space Segment
Each of the satellites contains four highly accurate atomic clocks. These clocks are used to generate a unique pseudorandom code identifying the specific satellite that is transmitted to earth. The satellite also transmits a set of digitally coded ephemeris data that completely defines its precise orbit.

Global Positioning System

The GPS space segment.

Global Positioning System

Control Segment
The control segment of the GPS system refers to the various ground stations that monitor the satellites and provide control and update information.
The master control station is operated by the U.S. Air Force in Colorado Springs. Four additional monitoring and control stations constantly monitor the satellites and collect range information from each.

Global Positioning System

Control Segment
The information is sent back to the master control station in Colorado, where all the information is collected and position data on each satellite calculated. The master control station then transmits new ephemeris and clock data to each satellite on the S-band uplink once per day.

Global Positioning System

GPS Receivers
A GPS receiver is a complex superheterodyne microwave receiver designed to pick up the GPS signals, decode them, and then compute the location of the receiver. The output is usually an LCD display giving latitude, longitude, and altitude information and/or a map of the area. The most widely used GPS receiver is the popular handheld portable type, not much larger than an oversized handheld calculator.

Global Positioning System

GPS Receivers
The receiver performs a time multiplexing operation on the four satellites within view of the receiver. The data is extracted from each of the four satellites and stored in the receivers memory. Data from three satellites is needed to fix the receivers position. If data from a fourth satellite is available, altitude can be calculated.

Global Positioning System

GPS receiver.

Global Positioning System

How triangulation works to locate a GPS receiver.

Global Positioning System

GPS Applications
The primary application of the GPS is military and related navigation. GPS is used by all services for ships, aircraft, and ground troops. Most civilian applications also involve navigation, which is usually marine or aviation-related.

Global Positioning System

GPS Applications Commercial applications include surveying, mapmaking, and construction. Vehicle location is a growing application for trucking and delivery companies, taxi, bus, and train transportation. Police, fire, ambulance, and forest services also use GPS. A new hobby called geocaching uses GPS receivers. In this sport, one team hides an item or treasure and then gives the other team coordinates to follow to find the treasure within a given time.

Design of the Satellite Link

The satellite link is probably the most basic in microwave communications since a line-of-sight path typically exists between the Earth and space. This means that an imaginary line extending between the transmitting or receiving Earth station and the satellite antenna passes only through the atmosphere and not ground obstacles. Such a link is governed by free-space propagation with only limited variation with respect to time due to various constituents of the atmosphere.

Design of the Satellite Link

Free-space attenuation is determined by the inverse square law, which states that the power received is inversely proportional to the square of the distance. The same law applies to the amount of light that reaches our eyes from a distant point source such as an automobile headlight or star. There are, however, a number of additional effects that produce a significant amount of degradation and time variation. These include rain, terrain effects such as absorption by trees and walls, and some less-obvious impairment produced by unstable conditions of the air and ionosphere.

Design of the Satellite Link

It is the job of the communication engineer to identify all of the significant contributions to performance and make sure that they are properly taken into account. The required factors include the performance of the satellite itself, the configuration and performance of the uplink and downlink Earth stations, and the impact of the propagation medium in the frequency band of interest.