UNIT IV SATELLITE ACCESS

4.1 Modulation and Multiplexing: Voice, Data, Video :

Communications satellites are used to carry telephone, video, and data

signals, and can use both analog and digital modulation techniques.

Modulation:
Modification of a carrier’s parameters (amplitude, frequency, phase, or a
combination of them) in dependence on the symbol to be sent.
Multiplexing:
Task of multiplexing is to assign space, time, frequency, and code to each
communication channel with a minimum of interference and a maximum of
medium utilization Communication channel refers to an association of sender(s)
and receiver(s) that want to exchange data One of several constellations of a
carrier’s parameters defined by the used modulation scheme.

3.1.1 Voice, Data, Video :

The modulation and multiplexing techniques that were used at this time
were analog, adapted from the technology developed for The change to digital
voice signals made it easier for long-distance.

Figure 3.1 Modulation and Multiplexing: Voice/Data/Video

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Communication carriers to mix digital data and telephone Fiber-optic

Cable Transmission Standards System Bit rate (Mbps) 64- kbps Voice channel
capacity Stuffing bits and words are added to the satellite data stream as needed
to fill empty bit and word spaces.

Primarily for video provided that a satellite link's overall carrier-to-noise

but in to older receiving equipment at System and Satellite Specification Ku-
band satellite parameters.

3.1.2 Modulation And Multiplexing:

In analog television (TV) transmission by satellite, the baseband video

signal and one or two audio subcarriers constitute a composite video signal.

Digital modulation is obviously the modulation of choice for transmitting

digital data are digitized analog signals may conveniently share a channel with
digital data, allowing a link to carry a varying mix of voice and data traffic.

Digital signals from different channels are interleaved for transmission

through time division multiplexing TDM carry any type of traffic — the bent
pipe transponder that can carry voice, video, or data as the marketplace
demands.

Hybrid multiple access schemes can use time division multiplexing of

baseband channels which are then modulate.

3.2 Analog – digital transmission system :

3.2.1 Analog vs. Digital Transmission:

Compare at two levels:

1. Data—continuous (audio) vs. discrete (text)

2. Signaling—continuously varying electromagnetic wave vs. sequence of
voltage pulses.

Also Transmission—transmit without regard to signal content vs. being

concerned with signal content. Difference in how attenuation is handled, but not
focus on this.Seeing a shift towards digital transmission despite large analog
base. Why?

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Figure 3.2 basic communication systems

• Improving digital technology

• Data integrity. Repeaters take out cumulative problems in transmission.
Can thus transmit longer distances.
• Easier to multiplex large channel capacities with digital
• Easy to apply encryption to digital data
• Better integration if all signals are in one form. Can integrate voice, video
and digital data.

3.2.2 Digital Data/Analog Signals:

Must convert digital data to analog signal such device is a modem to

translate between bit-serial and modulated carrier signals?

To send digital data using analog technology, the sender generates a

carrier signal at some continuous tone (e.g. 1-2 kHz in phone circuits) that looks
like a sine wave. The following techniques are used to encode digital data into
analog signals.

Figure 3.3 Digital /Analog Transmitter & receiver

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Resulting bandwidth is centered on the carrier frequency.

• Amplitude-shift modulation (keying): vary the amplitude (e.g. voltage) of

the signal. Used to transmit digital data over optical fiber.
• Frequency-shift modulation: two (or more tones) are used, which are near
the carrier frequency. Used in a full-duplex modem (signals in both
directions).
• Phase-shift modulation: systematically shift the carrier wave at uniformly
spaced intervals.

For instance, the wave could be shifted by 45, 135, 225, 315 degree at each
timing mark. In this case, each timing interval carries 2 bits of information.

Why not shift by 0, 90, 180, 270? Shifting zero degrees means no shift, and
an extended set of no shifts leads to clock synchronization difficulties.

Frequency division multiplexing (FDM): Divide the frequency

spectrum into smaller subchannels, giving each user exclusive use of a
subchannel (e.g., radio and TV). One problem with FDM is that a user is given
all of the frequency to use, and if the user has no data to send, bandwidth is
wasted — it cannot be used by another user.

Time division multiplexing (TDM): Use time slicing to give each user
the full bandwidth, but for only a fraction of a second at a time (analogous to
time sharing in operating systems). Again, if the user doesn’t have data to sent
during his timeslice, the bandwidth is not used (e.g., wasted).

Statistical multiplexing: Allocate bandwidth to arriving packets on

demand. This leads to the most efficient use of channel bandwidth because it
only carries useful data.That is, channel bandwidth is allocated to packets that
are waiting for transmission, and a user generating no packets doesn’t use any of
the channel resources.

3.3. Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB):

 Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) has become the synonym for digital
television and for data broadcasting world-wide.

 DVB services have recently been introduced in Europe, in North- and

South America, in Asia, Africa and Australia.

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 This article aims at describing what DVB is all about and at introducing
some of the technical background of a technology that makes possible the
broadcasting.

Figure 3.4 Digital Video Broadcasting systems

3.4 Multiple Access Techniques:

 The transmission from the BS in the downlink can be heard by each and
every mobile user in the cell, and is referred as broadcasting.
Transmission from the mobile users in the uplink to the BS is many-to-
one, and is referred to as multiple access.

 Multiple access schemes to allow many users to share simultaneously a

finite amount of radio spectrum resources.

 Should not result in severe degradation in the performance of the

system as compared to a single user scenario.
 Approaches can be broadly grouped into two categories: narrowband
and wideband.

 Multiple Accessing Techniques : with possible conflict and conflict- free

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 Random access
 Frequency division multiple access (FDMA)
 Time division multiple access (TDMA)
 Spread spectrum multiple access (SSMA) : an example is Code
division multiple access (CDMA)
 Space division multiple access (SDMA)

Duplexing:

 For voice or data communications, must assure two way communication

(duplexing, it is possible to talk and listen simultaneously). Duplexing
may be done using frequency or time domain techniques.
 Forward (downlink) band provides traffic from the BS to the mobile
 Reverse (uplink) band provides traffic from the mobile to the BS.

3.4.1 Frequency division duplexing (FDD):

 Provides two distinct bands of frequencies for every user, one for downlink
and one for uplink.

 A large interval between these frequency bands must be allowed so that

interference is minimized.

Figure 3.5 Frequency Separation

3.4.2. Time division duplexing (TDD):

 In TDD communications, both directions of transmission use one

contiguous frequency allocation, but two separate time slots to provide
both a forward and reverse link.

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 Because transmission from mobile to BS and from BS to mobile alternates

in time, this scheme is also known as “ping pong”.
 As a consequence of the use of the same frequency band, the
communication quality in both directions is the same. This is different
from FDD.

Figure 3.6 Time Slot

3.4.3 FDMA:

 In FDMA, each user is allocated a unique frequency band or channel.

During the period of the call, no other user can share the same frequency
band.

Figure 3.7 FDMA Channels

 All channels in a cell are available to all the mobiles. Channel assignment
is carried out on a first-come first- served basis.

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 The number of channels, given a frequency spectrum BT , depends on the

modulation technique (hence Bw or Bc ) and the guard bands between the
channels 2Bguard .

 These guard bands allow for imperfect filters and oscillators and can be
used to minimize adjacent channel interference.
 FDMA is usually implemented in narrowband systems.

Figure 3.8 FDMA/FDD/TDD

Nonlinear effects in FDMA:

 In a FDMA system, many channels share the same antenna at the

BS. The power amplifiers or the power combiners, when operated
at or near saturation are nonlinear.

 The nonlinear ties generate inter-modulation frequencies.

 Undesirable harmonics generated outside the mobile radio band

cause interference to adjacent services.

 Undesirable harmonics present inside the band cause interference

to other users in the mobile system.

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3.4.4 TDMA:

 TDMA systems divide the channel time into frames. Each frame is further
partitioned into time slots. In each slot only one user is allowed to either
transmit or receive.

 Unlike FDMA, only digital data and digital modulation must be used.

 Each user occupies a cyclically repeating time slot, so a channel may be

thought of as a particular time slot of every frame, where N time slots
comprise a frame.

Figure 3.9 TDMA Channels

Features:

 Multiple channels per carrier or RF channels.

 Burst transmission since channels are used on a timesharing basis.

Transmitter can be turned off during idle periods.

 Narrow or wide bandwidth – depends on factors such as modulation

scheme, number of voice channels per carrier channel.

 High ISI – Higher transmission symbol rate, hence resulting in high ISI.
Adaptive equalizer required.

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Figure 3.10 TDMA Channels time slot

 A guard time between the two time slots must be allowed in order to avoid
interference, especially in the uplink direction. All mobiles should
synchronize with BS to minimize interference.

 Efficient power utilization : FDMA systems require a 3- to 6-dB power back

off in order to compensate for inter-modulation effects.

 Efficient handoff : TDMA systems can take advantage of the fact that the
transmitter is switched off during idle time slots to improve the handoff
procedure. An enhanced link control, such as that provided by mobile
assisted handoff (MAHO) can be carried out by a subscriber by listening to
neighboring base station during the idle slot of the TDMA frame.

 Efficiency of TDMA

 Efficiency of TDMA is a measure of the percentage of bits per frame which

contain transmitted data. The transmitted data include source and channel
coding bits.

 bOH includes all overhead bits such as preamble, guard bits, etc.

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3.4.5 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA):

 Spreading signal (code) consists of chips

 Has Chip period and and hence, chip rate

 Spreading signal use a pseudo-noise (PN) sequence (a pseudo-random

sequence)

 PN sequence is called a codeword

 Each user has its own cordword

 Codewords are orthogonal. (low autocorrelation)

 Chip rate is oder of magnitude larger than the symbol rate.

 The receiver correlator distinguishes the senders signal by examining the

wideband signal with the same time-synchronized spreading code

 The sent signal is recovered by despreading process at the receiver.

CDMA Advantages:

 Low power spectral density.

 Signal is spread over a larger frequency band

 Other systems suffer less from the transmitter

 Interference limited operation

 All frequency spectrum is used

 Privacy

 The codeword is known only between the sender and receiver. Hence
other users can not decode the messages that are in transit

 Reduction of multipath affects by using a larger spectrum

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CDMA data:

Figure 3.11 CDMA Channels transmission

DSSS Transmitter:

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Figure 3.12 CDMA Transmitter

DSSS Receiver

Figure 3.13 CDMA Receiver

 FDMA/CDMA

 Available wideband spectrum is frequency divided into number

narrowband radio channels. CDMA is employed inside each channel.

 DS/FHMA

 The signals are spread using spreading codes (direct sequence signals
are obtained), but these signal are not transmitted over a constant
carrier frequency; they are transmitted over a frequency hopping
carrier frequency.

 Time Division CDMA (TCDMA)

 Each cell is using a different spreading code (CDMA employed

between cells) that is conveyed to the mobiles in its range.

 Inside each cell (inside a CDMA channel), TDMA is employed to

multiplex multiple users.

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 Time Division Frequency Hopping

 At each time slot, the user is hopped to a new frequency according to

a pseudo-random hopping sequence.

 Employed in severe co-interference and multi-path environments.

Bluetooth and GSM are using this technique

 A large number of independently steered high-gain beams can be formed

without any resulting degradation in SNR ratio.

 Beams can be assigned to individual users, thereby assuring that all links
operate with maximum gain.

 Adaptive beam forming can be easily implemented to improve the system

capacity by suppressing co channel interference.

Advantage of CDMA

 It is recognized that CDMA’s capacity gains over TDMA

 FDMA are entirely due to Its tighter, dynamic control over the use of the power
domain.

 Choosing a new non-orthogonal PN sequence a CDMA system does not encounter

the difficulties of choosing a spare carrier frequency or time slot to carry a Traffic
Channel

 Ensure that interference will not be too great if it begins to transmit -that there is
still enough space left in the power domain.

Disadvantages of CDMA:

 Satellite transponders are channelized too narrowly for roadband CDMA, which is
the most attractive form of CDMA.

 Power control cannot be as tight as it is in a terrestrial system because of long

round-trip delay.

3.5. Channel allocation schemes:

In radio resource management for wireless and cellular network, channel

allocation schemes are required to allocate bandwidth and communication
channels to base stations, access points and terminal equipment.

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The objective is to achieve maximum system spectral efficiency in bit/s/Hz/site

by means of frequency reuse, but still assure a certain grade of service by avoiding
co-channel interference and adjacent channel interference among nearby cells or
networks that share the bandwidth. There are two types of strategies that are
followed:-

 Fixed: FCA, fixed channel allocation: Manually assigned by the network

operator
 Dynamic:

 DCA, dynamic channel allocation,

 DFS, dynamic frequency selection
 Spread spectrum

3.5.1 FCA:

In Fixed Channel Allocation or Fixed Channel Assignment (FCA)

each cell is given a predetermined set of frequency channels.

FCA requires manual frequency planning, which is an arduous task in

TDMA and FDMA based systems, since such systems are highly sensitive to co-
channel interference from nearby cells that are reusing the same channel.

This results in traffic congestion and some calls being lost when traffic gets
heavy in some cells, and idle capacity in other cells.

3.5.2. DCA and DFS:

Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) may be applied in wireless

networks with several adjacent non-centrally controlled access points.

A more efficient way of channel allocation would be Dynamic Channel

Allocation or Dynamic Channel Assignment (DCA) in which voice channel are
not allocated to cell permanently, instead for every call request base station
request channel from MSC.

3.6 Spread spectrum:

Spread spectrum can be considered as an alternative to complex DCA

algorithms. Spread spectrum avoids cochannel interference between adjacent

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cells, since the probability that users in nearby cells use the same spreading code
is insignificant.

Thus the frequency channel allocation problem is relaxed in cellular

networks based on a combination of Spread spectrum and FDMA, for example
IS95 and 3G systems.

In packet based data communication services, the communication is bursty

and the traffic load rapidly changing. For high system spectrum efficiency, DCA
should be performed on a packet-by-packet basis.

Examples of algorithms for packet-by-packet DCA are Dynamic Packet

Assignment (DPA), Dynamic Single Frequency Networks (DSFN) and Packet
and resource plan scheduling (PARPS).

3.6.1 Spread spectrum Techniques:

1 In telecommunication and radio communication, spread-spectrum

techniques are methods by which a signal (e.g. an electrical, electromagnetic,
or acoustic signal) generated with a particular bandwidth is deliberately
spread in the frequency domain, resulting in a signal with a wider bandwidth.
2 These techniques are used for a variety of reasons, including the
establishment of secure communications, increasing resistance to natural
interference, noise and jamming, to prevent detection, and to limit power flux
density (e.g. in satellite downlinks).
3 Spread-spectrum telecommunications this is a technique in which a
telecommunication signal is transmitted on a bandwidth considerably larger
than the frequency content of the original information.
4 Spread-spectrum telecommunications is a signal structuring
technique that employs direct sequence, frequency hopping, or a hybrid of
these, which can be used for multiple access and/or multiple functions.
5 Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS), direct-sequence spread
spectrum (DSSS), time-hopping spread spectrum (THSS), chirp spread
spectrum (CSS).
6 Techniques known since the 1940s and used in military
communication systems since the 1950s "spread" a radio signal over a wide
frequency range several magnitudes higher than minimum requirement.
7 Resistance to jamming (interference). DS (direct sequence) is good at
resisting continuous-time narrowband jamming, while FH (frequency hopping)
is better at resisting pulse jamming.
8 Resistance to fading. The high bandwidth occupied by spread-
spectrum signals offer some frequency diversity, i.e. it is unlikely that the

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signal will encounter severe multipath fading over its whole bandwidth, and
in other cases the signal can be detected using e.g. a Rake receiver.
9 Multiple access capability, known as code-division multiple access
(CDMA) or code-division multiplexing (CDM). Multiple users can transmit
simultaneously in the same frequency band as long as they use different
spreading codes.

3.7 Compression – Encryption:

At the broadcast center, the high-quality digital stream of video goes

through an MPEG encoder, which converts the programming to MPEG-4 video of
the correct size and format for the satellite receiver in your house.

Encoding works in conjunction with compression to analyze each video

frame and eliminate redundant or irrelevant data and extrapolate information
from other frames. This process reduces the overall size of the file. Each frame can
be encoded in one of three ways:

 As an intraframe, which contains the complete image data for that frame.
This method provides the least compression.
 As a predicted frame, which contains just enough information to tell the
satellite receiver how to display the frame based on the most recently
displayed intraframe or predicted frame.
 As a bidirectional frame, which displays information from the
surrounding intraframe or predicted frames. Using data from the closest
surrounding frames, the receiver interpolates the position and color of
each pixel.

This process occasionally produces artifacts -- glitches in the video image.

One artifact is macroblocking, in which the fluid picture temporarily dissolves
into blocks. Macroblocking is often mistakenly called pixilating, a technically
incorrect term which has been accepted as slang for this annoying artifact.

There really are pixels on your TV screen, but they're too small for your
human eye to perceive them individually -- they're tiny squares of video data that
make up the image you see. (For more information about pixels and perception,
see How TV Works.)

The rate of compression depends on the nature of the programming. If the

encoder is converting a newscast, it can use a lot more predicted frames because
most of the scene stays the same from one frame to the next.

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In more fast-paced programming, things change very quickly from one

frame to the next, so the encoder has to create more intraframes. As a result, a
newscast generally compresses to a smaller size than something like a car race.

3.7.1 Encryption and Transmission:

After the video is compressed, the provider encrypts it to keep people from
accessing it for free. Encryption scrambles the digital data in such a way that it
can only be decrypted (converted back into usable data) if the receiver has the
correct decryption algorithm and security keys.

Once the signal is compressed and encrypted, the broadcast center beams it
directly to one of its satellites. The satellite picks up the signal with an onboard
dish, amplifies the signal and uses another dish to beam the signal back to Earth,
where viewers can pick it up.

In the next section, we'll see what happens when the signal reaches a viewer's
house.

3.7.2 Video and Audio Compression:

Video and Audio files are very large beasts. Unless we develop and
maintain very high bandwidth networks (Gigabytes per second or more) we have
to compress to data.

Relying on higher bandwidths is not a good option -- M25 Syndrome: Traffic

needs ever increases and will adapt to swamp current limit whatever this is.

As we will compression becomes part of the representation or coding

scheme which have become popular audio, image and video formats.

We will first study basic compression algorithms and then go on to study

some actual coding formats.

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Figure 3.14 coding scheme

What is Compression?

Compression basically employs redundancy in the data:

 Temporal -- in 1D data, 1D signals, Audio etc.

 Spatial -- correlation between neighbouring pixels or data items
 Spectral -- correlation between colour or luminescence components. This uses the
frequency domain to exploit relationships between frequency of change in data.
 psycho-visual -- exploit perceptual properties of the human visual system.

Compression can be categorised in two broad ways:

Lossless Compression :

-- where data is compressed and can be reconstituted (uncompressed) without loss

of detail or information. These are referred to as bit-preserving or reversible
compression systems also.

Lossy Compression :

-- where the aim is to obtain the best possible fidelity for a given bit-rate or
minimizing the bit-rate to achieve a given fidelity measure. Video and audio
compression techniques are most suited to this form of compression.

If an image is compressed it clearly needs to uncompressed (decoded) before

it can viewed/listened to. Some processing of data may be possible in encoded form
however. Lossless compression frequently involves some form of entropy encoding
and are based in information theoretic techniques.

Lossy compression use source encoding techniques that may involve

transform encoding, differential encoding or vector quantization.

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3.7.3 MPEG Standards :

All MPEG standards exist to promote system interoperability among your

computer, television and handheld video and audio devices. They are:

 MPEG-1: the original standard for encoding and decoding streaming video
and audio files.
 MPEG-2: the standard for digital television, this compresses files for
transmission of high-quality video.
 MPEG-4: the standard for compressing high-definition video into smaller-
scale files that stream to computers, cell phones and PDAs (personal digital
assistants).
 MPEG-21: also referred to as the Multimedia Framework. The standard
that interprets what digital content to provide to which individual user so
that media plays flawlessly under any language, machine or user
conditions.

Figure 3.15 MPEG scheme

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3.8 Encryption:

It is the most effective way to achieve data security. To read an encrypted

file, you must have access to a secret key or password that enables you to decrypt
it. Unencrypted data is called plain text ; encrypted data is referred to as
cipher text.

Figure 3.16 Encryption methods

9.1.1 Symmetric key encryption:

In symmetric-key schemes, the encryption and decryption keys are the

same. Thus communicating parties must have the same key before they can
achieve secret communication.

In public-key encryption schemes, the encryption key is published for

anyone to use and encrypt messages. However, only the receiving party has access
to the decryption key that enables messages to be read.

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Figure 3.16 General block diagram Encryption methods

Decryption:

It is the process of taking encoded or encrypted text or other data and

converting it back into text that you or the computer are able to read and
understand.

This term could be used to describe a method of un-encrypting the data

manually or with un-encrypting the data using the proper codes or keys.

Data may be encrypted to make it difficult for someone to steal the

information. Some companies also encrypt data for general protection of company
data and trade secrets. If this data needs to be viewable, it may require decryption.

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