PERSPECTIVES IN

COMMUNICATION
PARADIGM
&
INTERFERENCE
Dr.S.Pal* DFIETE, FIEEE, FNAE, FNASc
ISRO Satellite Centre,
BANGALORE - 560 017

Kathmandu, 11th July 2008

•Author is Distinguished Scientist and
Programme Director, SATNAV
Now a days:

• Three things are becoming popular in the

modern world
– Satellite Communication
– Personal Communication (Mobile
Communication)
– Position Location using GNSS

&
• There are two buzz words
– Communication
– Information Technology
 If any thing goes wrong general
public blames:
– Lack of communication or information
&
Technologist blame:
– Electromagnetic Interference &
Compatibility
 INTERFERENCE
• In technological paradigm
interference is defined in many
ways:
– As the signal density of the available
spectrum proliferates, the desired
signal of one becomes the undesired
signal or interference of another.
– Often, the degree and nature of such
interferences, including their
frequency spectra or waveforms, are
not a-priori known.
 INTERFERENCE
• An interference could also be
intentional, hostile and affecting a
system. These interferences are
not white noise.
• Even though special means and
technologies are now available to
eliminate or mitigate, in view of
the spread of communication
systems and development of high
sensitive systems there is always a
problem.
 Imagine:
• You are getting interference in your
cordless telephone, TV, radio, music
system.
• As soon as you switch on your
microwave oven your TV channel
changes (RF to IR). Mobile makes the PC
hanging. A passing motor cycle causes
disturbance in radio.
• In a hospital the sophisticated
monitoring system goes hay-wire
whenever MRI equipment is switched
on. Pace maker behaves erratically
whenever mobile is kept in pocket.
• GPS receiver shows wrong locations
• Satellites looses lock in orbit. Wong &
spurious command execution
• Mobile handset causes problems in
aircraft
• Blue Tooth and RF LAN
• Causes problems in NC Machines
These are a few instances only
 Common Causes
• Before you can resolve an interference
problem you must isolate the actual
interference source.
• Interference originates from many sources
even the equipment itself, your residence, or
the neighborhood.
• The two most common causes of interference
are transmitters and electrical equipment.
Communication systems that transmit
signals (transmitters) are capable of
generating interference; these include
amateur radios and radio and television
stations.
 Transmitter Interference
• Transmitter interference is normally caused by
the actual design of the (interfered with)
equipment itself.
• Many manufacturers do not protect internal
wiring with adequate shielding or sufficient
filtering, so the interfered with equipment is
susceptible to receiving unwanted signals –
interference.
• The source may be as simple as a frayed wire
that connects your speakers to an amplifier.
• A faulty wire can act as an antenna that will
carry interfering signals.
 Electrical Interference
• Electrical interference appears on the
audio and video portion of television
programming.
• There are various patterns: the entire
screen may be covered with rolling
horizontal lines, bars on the TV screen
or a series of diagonal dashed white
lines.
• Short bursts of interference may be
caused by hair dryers, sewing
machines, electric drills, doorbell
transformers and garage door openers.
• If the pattern is on continuously, it may
be caused by equipment that is in use
• If you cannot locate the interference
source in your own house, check with
your neighbours to see if they also
receive interference.
• The house that has the worst
interference will often be the source of
the interference.
• If you can determine that the electrical
interference is not caused by any device
in your home or a neighbour’s home
served by the same transformer,
contact the customer service
department of your local power
company.
Common Interference modes
& sources
• Collocated interferences
• Remote interference
• Cochannel interference
• Adjacent channel interference
• Multipath interference
[Best way to correct interference is by locating
the source of interference and mitigate.
However it is not always possible to do the
same, hence tight adaptive filtering and
interference cancellation is the option].
 INTERFERENCE PROBLEMS
• INTERFERENCE IS A PHENOMINA LIKE NOISE
which one has to manage & live with.

– Mathematically the received signal can be represented as

Rsignal = f( Sw, Dw, Si, Di, )

Where
Rsignal :could be C/N, S/N or Eb/No
under minimum needed ISI, BER
S: The set of parameters specifying the signal
characteristics (MI, Base band bandwidth, Signal
type, etc.)
subscripts w - indicates wanted
I - indicates interfering
D: Set of network link parameters
- eirp, frequency, antenna size, G/T, coverage etc
 INTERFERENCE PROBLEMS
• To evaluate Interference one needs:
– EIRP of the source, geometrical location
– BW, signal characteristics, antenna
pattern etc.,
• To evaluate the effect of interference
one needs:
– Signal characteristics of wanted and
unwanted signals ( MI, frequency,
filtering, amplification characteristics,
etc.)
– Antenna pattern and characteristics of
wanted and unwanted source
• The overall effect gives rise to
number of combinations and a proper
one has to be chosen.
The Electromagnetic Spectrum
 Communication and
Information Technology
• The word `Communication' comes from Latin
word `Communico' - meaning `share'. It is
communication more than anything else which
has been responsible for the shrinking of time
and distance and with the development of space
technology time and distance have lost their
conventional meaning.
• The other word `information' which is also
closely related to communications means
"contents" of message. Claude Shannon
defined "information" as "Reduction of
Uncertainty". Information is also described as
"any difference that makes a difference".
Information is a notch on the spectrum with
raw data on low end and knowledge/wisdom on
the high end.
• The present day society is often referred as
information society.
In the past few decades, persons and institutions
have been progressively unsettled by the rapid pace
of social and technological changes brought about
by Communications. In earlier times the world
around us seemed more stable and major changes
in values, institutions and technology evolved more
slowly. It took centuries for the Middle Ages to
become the Renaissance, yet many of us have
experienced major technological revolution in one
life time in the last century.
Many technological reversals have been seen like
the telephone which should have been on the
wired network has become wireless, while the TV
which was wireless now works on cable. Many
individual spheres of working have become
almost universal, like education has come to the
drawing room from school and colleges, sectors
like banking, medicines, hospitals etc which were
location specific are available on net.
We are presently getting on the crest of the third
wave which is INFORMATION &
COMMUNICATION REVOLUTION more
appropriately termed as `IT' -Information
Technology.
• All the communication services like telephone,
TV, internet, VPN, Electronic Mail, Video Text
Service MMS, Digital TV, Cellular Mobile
Telephone (PCS), Wireless in Local Loops, Ultra
Broad Band services, extensive use of the spread
spectrum and CDMA services, Video telephones,
Interactive Video and Video on demand, Tele-
education, Tele-banking, Tele-health, Tele-
shopping, Global Positioning and Timing system
etc., need either terrestrial or satellite channels to
serve the user. The present scenario looks like:
 Television Internet TV
Cable TV
Video on
AUDIO SYSTEM Demand
DVD Space

Telephone Internet
Cellular
Cellular
Pager Internet World
Telephony Wide
Fax
Web
Home Banking

Network
Printer Computing
VideoCamera Terrestrial
Video
Desktop PC conferencing
PDA
Credit Card Smart Card

A COMMUNICATION SCENARIO
Space Communication
 SPACE COMMUNICATION
• In seventies, Communication using satellites in
Geo orbit was done using large 90-95 ft diameter
antennas. Here onboard bandwidth availability
was small and the user always went through PSTN
network, never came in contact with the satellite.
The satellite communication was a holy cow
which could be handled and touched with lot of
care. Component technologies both for satellites
as well as ground stations was in its infancy.
The situation changed considerably in eighties and the
communications requirements became really nerve-
racking. Imagine the transmission reception of signals
to satellites from:
♦A ship pitching and rolling on the high seas
♦An aero-plane flying at a speed of >800 kms per
hour
♦An orbiting space vehicle/satellite with speeds >7
to 8 kms per second
♦An aero-plane or a ship in distress
♦A mountaineer/A trekker/A forest guard/An
elephant/A tiger/A bird/A turtle/a dolphin
♦A man always on move / A motor vehicle.
If using satellites to communicate is a great marvel,
doing the same without stopping or even slowing down
is almost miracle.
• SOME OF THE SATELLITE COMMUNICATION
SERVICES:

∗ Telephony/TV Broadcasting/Data reception and

distribution/Direct Television broadcasting/Disaster
warning/Continuous weather monitoring/Spacecraft
Vehicle Tracking and Commanding/ Intersatellite
links/ Mail /Internet/Data mining

∗ Position (GPS) and time determination / Moving

motor vehicle tracking etc.

* The commercial communication satellite services

are rapidly becoming a large & global business
increasing from $11 billion in 1992 to $20 billion in
1996 and $75 billion by year 2005. (Projections have
come down to $$66.5 billion due to iridium failure
and overall slump in the market)
The most important thing which has happened
in space communication is that the ground
stations are becoming smaller and smaller day
by day reducing to pocket size calculator.
In my opinion space communication scenario will be:
• The future Telecommunication spacecraft will be developed
from transmission in to Information Satellites (INFOSAT).
They will be given many of the properties of terrestrial
telephone exchanges and signal processing equipments and it
will be possible to integrate them directly into future global
networks.
• The satellite platform will have multiple reconfigurable
antennas/transmitters with dynamic power sharing / Receivers
in various frequency ranges / large reconfigurable switching
matrices at baseband and at RF level / intersatellite links
permitting signals to be exchanged between satellites according
to changing requirements / complex and efficient analog /
optical / digital signal processors / New modulation technique
and multiple access techniques.
• It will be sufficiently broadband systems & may have even
optical space communication components.
• Satellites will be autonomous.
INTERFERENCE PROBLEMS FOR GEO STATIONARY SATELLITES
• Geo Stationary Orbit:
– It is a natural resource & must be managed efficiently.
• Concern - Over crowding of available
spectrum & slots
• Mitigation: - Frequency Reuse
- Clustering of satellites
- Use of high frequency bands
When all the above options are exhausted, Prioritize the services:
i. Mobile services
ii. Remote area Communication
iii. Networking for data transmission
iv. Remote sensing & monitoring (Weather, Pollution etc.,)
v. Broadcast, Quasi Broadcast Services where satellites are particularly
useful
vi. Disaster management
Services which need to be phased out:
– TV, Radio, etc.
– Point to point communication with heavy density traffic ( Data
transmission, telephone, internet etc.)
De-orbiting of satellites
Use of optical bands
INTERFERENCE PROBLEMS FOR GEO STATIONARY SATELLITES

• INTERFERENCES
– INTRA SYSTEM
• Transponder characteristics
• EMI/EMC parameters
• Filtering and amplification parameters
• LO & IM product management
– INTER SYSTEM
• Geometrical separation
• Frequency of operation, G/T, Modulation characteristics, eirp
etc
• Antenna Patterns ( Side lobes, polarization discrimination etc.)
• System characteristics ( amplification, filtering etc.,)
 INTERFERENCE PROBLEMS FOR GEO STATIONARY SATELLITES

• Interference in Analog systems:

– FDM/FM channels ( Gaussian distribution)
• Effect : Ghost images
Intelligible cross talks
• Mitigation: Look for Protection Ratios

– Interference in Digital signals

• C/I - Degradation of BER for most
popular modulation scheme QPSK

• Mitigation: - Use of Spread spectrum & CDMA

Use of new modulation techniques
viz., GMSK
Use of coding /encryption techniques
 MOBILE PHONE & IT’S BASE
STATIONS

(Sources of interference & Health Hazards)

 Difference between mobile phone
base station & radio TV transmissions
• Mobile phones and radio TV transmissions in
VHF/UHF bands in FM mode
• Human health hazard from RF radiations of
mobile & video, TV transmissions:
YES & NO
YES : If human beings come in line of
transmission of radio TV transmission
NO: Radio TV transmissions 100 to 5000 times
higher than mobile base station are typically
higher transmission times (250-400 meter)
• Mobile base station transmission level low .
Effect is less.
• Does RF energy from mobile base
station produce ionization radiation like
x-ray?
Interaction of EM energy with biological
material eg. Human cells depends upon
frequency of source:
Electric power 50/60 Hz
AM radio has frequency around 1 MHz
FM radio : 100 MHz
Microwave oven : 2450 MHz
X-ray : One million MHz
Cellular phones : 800 – 2200 MHz
• At extremely high frequencies of x-ray
EM waves have sufficient energy to
break chemical bonds, thereby
damaging the genetic material of cells
leading to cancer or birth defects.
• Mobile phones and their base stations
have much lower frequencies. There
energy is sufficiently low, its effect on
cells is “non ionizing”.
• It does no harm to cells like x ray.
However long term effects have not
been studies.
 Safety guide lines for mobile
phone base stations
• YES: There are National and
International safety guide lines for
mobile phones and base sations
The guiding organizations are:
– Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers and American National Standard
Institute (ANSI/IEEE)
– The International Commission on Non-
Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)
– The National Council on Radiation Protection
and Measurements (NCRP)
 RF Standards
• Base stations operating in 1800-2000 MHz
ANSI/IEEE exposure standard for general
public 1.2 mW/cm.sq
For stations operating around 900 MHz
(eg, base stations for analog phones in USA)
• ANSI/IEEE exposure standard for general public
0.57 mW/cm sq.
• Exposure standards apply to power densities
averaged over 30 minutes in case of
ANSI/IEEE, NCRP and FCC standards at mobile
phone frequencies.
 What are the basis of RF hazard and
safety issues for RF radiation:

• Exposure to RF radiation is hazardous if

the exposure is sufficiently intense
leading to injuries like cataracts, skin
burns, deep burns, heat exhaustion and
heat strokes.

• No biological effects have been

consistently shown below a certain
specific absorption rate (SAR) of a human
being
What are the basis of RF hazard and
safety issues for RF radiation:
• Biological effect of RF energy is
proportional to the rate of energy
absorption and is less effective in
frequency range of 1 to 10,000 MHz.
• The safety margin for RF exposure for
public envisaged 5 times more than SAR.
• Demonstrated result is 2% of the level
where potentially harmful biological
effects have been demonstrated.
 Mobile phone base line
safety guide lines
• With proper design, mobile phone base station
antenna can meet all safety guide lines by
wide margin (In India no guideline exist.
• Nobody has made a model of city. In a city like
Bombay on the same building 3-4 operators
have put up their systems)
• A mobile phone base antenna at 10 meters
height and operated at maximum power level
might produce 0.01 mW/cm-sq near the
antenna site.
• But in publicly accessible area will be in range
of 0.00001 to 0.0005 mW/cm-sq which is much
below safety limit.
 Mobile phone base line
safety guide lines
• Power density inside a building will be
lower by a factor of 4 to 20 than
outside
• If antennas are mounted in such a way
that public could gain access to areas
within 8 meters (horizontal) of the
radiating surface, then it could fail to
meet the standard
• If antennas are mounted on high
towers, it may meet the safety
standards
Mobile phone base line
safety guide lines
Mobile phone base line safety
guide lines
 RF Energy Levels in Canadian Schools
Near Mobile Phone Base Stations

School Base Station Location Maximum RF Level

1 digital (PCS) base station across street 0.00016 mW/cm-sq
2 analog base station on roof 0.0026 mW/cm-sq
3 analog base station across street 0.00022 mW/cm-sq
4 and 5 no antennas nearby less than 0.00001 mW/cm-sq
Canadian Standard less than 0.57 mW/cm-sq
 RF Energy and Cancer
• Some 26 reviews & studies till
2005 conclude:
• Exposure to low level of RF
radiation may cause subtle
biological effects. But adverse
health effects remain unproven
• Localized exposures from mobile
phones may induce effects as a
result of mild heating of
superficial tissues close to head
RF Energy and Cancer
• Canadian study indicate that the
effect of exposures from mobile
phones in thousand times lower
than the recommended safe level
• The EM field of a mobile phone
does not constitute health hazard
according to present state of
scientific knowledge
Mobile Phones and
Interference
• Mobile phones cause lots of RF interferences
and may interfere with aircraft electronics,
GPS based ITS, GPS based vehicle density
monitoring system etc.
• Use of mobile phones at petrol bunks, in
aircrafts ot in ICU units of hospitals and in
cardiac sections is prohibited.
• The intermodulation products (IMs) or passive
intermodulation products (PIM) in the
transmitted signal by mobile phones may
effect these systems.
• It may even effect a pace maker or critical ICU
equipment in cardiac section of a hospital
leading to casuality.
• The IMs or PIMs can also affect the functioning
of VSAT satellite terminals.
 Mitigation
For Health Hazards
• Prepare a multipath & radiation
model of the city
• Do not increase power
• Put the base stations at heights
• Do not allow crowding of one place
on account of Base Station
• Have continuous monitoring of RF
signal densities.
 Mitigation
For RFI
• Use of proper filters from mobile
phone base stations
• Use of efficient coding and
encryption
• Use of bandwidth efficient
modulation techniques like QPSK
and narrow band GMSK systems
• Use of tight filters at the input of
victim receiving systems
Mobile phone handset safety

• The risk of accident and

fatality associated with the
use of mobile phones when
driving has been definitely
been established beyond
doubt.
• In current state of knowledge, this
is the only known health risk, of
course a serious one.
 GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite
System)
Application & Impact of interference
(The System is always susceptible to
interference)
• GNSS is the latest technology on
which mankind is likely to depend
very heavily. The system is liable to
get interfered by INTENTIONAL &
UN-INTENTIONAL sources of
interference.
• The system is extremely low power
system (Typical receiver sensitivity
~-130 dBm) utilizing SS processing
techniques, is vulnerable to
interference particularly the signal
& code structure available to
civilian uses of the system
Availability of GPS to civilian
users
• After the Korean Airlines flight (KAL
007) President Reagan (1983)
offered free use of GPS for civilian
applications.
• In 1993 the constellation was
declared operational while in 1997
the uninterrupted use of GPS
civilian frequency was announced
while in May 2000 S/A was
 GPS Applications & Uses
• Civil Aviation
– Ocean, En-Route, Terminal NPA, PA
– Target 3D guidance for all terminals &
precision approach-CAT-3

• Maritime Operations
– Vessel navigation
– Ocean
– Coastal
– Harbor and Harbor (HHA)
– Inland waterway and constructed channel
 GPS Applications & Uses
– Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) Surveillance
– Search & Rescue Mission
– Resources Exploration
– Aids to Navigation Positioning

• Transportation
– PTC – Positive train control [Anticollision,
speed control Automatic Train Control etc.]
– ITS (Intelligent Transportation System)
– Travel management, Fleet management
etc.
 Other Vital Applications
• Power grid synchronization,
Banking Time Standards, Survey,
GIS, Scientific research, earth
movement monitoring, spacecraft
tracking etc.
• Military target identification behind
flying, Mobile Communication,
Farming etc.
Vulnerability of Systems
Based on GPS
 GPS Vulnerability
• Unintentional Sources
• Ionospheric interference
• Radio frequency interference
L1(1575.42MHz) gets interfered from
VHF-TV (23,66,67),MSS, UWB, Over the
horizon (OTH) Radars, Cellphones
• L2 (1227.6 MHz) get affected by
Personal Electronic Devices (eg. cell
phone) & Radars (Systems have co-
primary allocations)
• L5 (1176.45MHz) overlaps to military
Joint Tactical Information Distribution
Systems
• Wide spread digital TV,
VHF,transmissions Airport,
Surveillance Radars etc.
• MSS (1610-1660.5 Hz)
• Spurious & Harmonic Emission
from GSO [1525-1559 MHz) –
(These are unregulated by ITU.
MSS space to Earth is 1559-1567
MHz)
• Human factors
 GPS Vulnerability to Intentional
sources
• The P(Y) code has got a better accuracy
integrity & antijamming capabilities
than C/A code. Y code jammers affect
the C/A code. International sources
could by GPS like signal transmitters
(1W to 1000 watts)
• Depends on the duration, location &
type of intention for causing
interference.
• Main methord could
– JAMMING (CW or GPS like PN-interfering
signal
 Protecting

the

GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM

• The civil transportation infrastructure
seeking the increased efficiency made
possible by GPS is developing a reliance
on GPS that can lead to serious
consequences if the service is
disrupted, and the users are not
prepared with mitigating equipment &
operational procedures.

• Systems and procedures to monitor,

report and locate intentional &
unintentional interference should be
implemented or utilized in any
application for which loss of GPS is not
tolerable.
WHAT HAPPENS IF THE GPS SYSTEM
IS
INTERRUPTED
OR
INTERFERE WITH
• GPS System will act as confused
• Banking system, Power Grid,
Cellular systems, communication
links and other systems using
accurate time of GPS will get
effected, may not be instantly.
• Systems such as weather balloons,
uninhabited Ariel Vehicles and
various other GPS equipped
platforms using position data may
become unusable on the onset of
the anomaly.
• Since GPS service is free and easy to
use, because of the low power of the
signal interference whether
unintentional or intentional may cause
large outrages
• Vulnerability cannot be completely
eliminated on account of it being a low
power system in a crowded spectrum
multiple sources of noise, no control on
use of counterfeit signature
• GPS threats are proliferating – products
are appearing on the market including
design on the internet.
 Possible Solutions
• SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT & LEGAL
ACTION
• DETECTION & LOCATION
CAPABILITY
– Locate interference & deploy
interference location equipment
• Detect anomalies, noise, loss of
accuracy (DOP Spikes), or if
something is wrong with the GPS
 Possible Solutions contd.
• GPS – Modernization Programme
Higher EIRP, Longer, Robust Code and
wide separation of L1,L2 & L5
JAM RESISTANT USER EQUIPMENT
(Adaptive signal reception etc. with
multi-element antenna, adaptive
antenna array, polarization
discrimination)
Amplitude, time of arrival, angle of
arrival etc
Cryptographic Authentication
 Possible Solutions contd.

• Predict what the anomaly will do to

the use of GPS by gathering data,
analyzing and determining
potential impacts
• Determine how to mitigate the
anomaly: for example, by reporting
satellite errors to local receivers
and locating the interference
source
 CONCLUSION
• Presently man is in a shrinking globe and
also in expanding universe with lots of
technological surprises for the
technological pundits.
• We are becoming increasingly networked
thereby our world is growing smaller &
bigger simultaneously.
• Communication in all its forms is
affecting our life and so is interference.
• A synergy has to be worked out into
desired-undesired intentional and un-
intentional signals and interferences.
• Proper identification and mitigation
techniques will be the need of the day.
THANK YOU