Overview of SATELLITE
Communication
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.
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 Down-link.
Altitudes of orbits above the
earth
There are 3 common types of
satellite based on altitude, i.e. GEO,
Orbit
Altitude
Missions possibles
MEO
& LEO
Earth observation,
Low-Earth orbit LEO
250 to 1,500 km
meteorology,
telecommunications
(constellations)
Medium-Earth orbit
MEO
10,000 to 30,000 km
Telecommunications
(constellations),
positioning, science
Geostationary Earth
orbit GEO
35,786 km
Telecommunications,
positioning, science
Between 800 and
27,000 km
Telecommunications
Up to several million
km
Interplanetary
missions
Elliptical orbit
Hyperbolic orbit
GEO, MEO, LEO
Orbital Period
The time taken by a satellite to complete
one rotation in its orbit is called its period.
The GEO satellite takes 23 hrs & 56
minutes & 4.1 Seconds to complete its
rotation which is approximately equal to
the period of rotation of earth around its
axis. This is why it appears to be
stationary by the observer on Earth
moving with the same speed as that of
satellite. So one GEO stationary satellite
can serve a ground user round the clock.
Orbital Period
Satellite
System
Orbital Height
(Km)
Orbital
Velocity
(Km/Sec)
Orbital Period
(H M
S)
Intelsat (GEO)
35,786
3.0747
23 56 4.1
New ICO (MEO)
10,255
4.8954
55 48.4
Iridium (LEO)
1,469
7.1272
55 17.8
Notice as altitude decreases, the velocity must be increased to
minimize the gravitational effect.
Coverage Area of Satellite
The Earth surface covered by
satellite radiations is called FOOT
PRINT. The coverage area is inversely
proportional to frequency. The foot
print will be large if the frequency of
down link is low.
GEO satellite Coverage
One GEO can cover 1/3 of earth
surface so the earth is divided in 3
regions.
1.AOR (Atlantic Ocean Region)
2.POR (Pacific Ocean region)
3.IOR (Indian Ocean region)
FREQUENCIES for Satellite Communication
Letter
Designation
Frequency range
USE
L band
1 to 2GHz
Satellite phone, GPS
S band
2 to 4GHz
Satellite phone
C band
4 to 8GHz
TV transmission
X band
8 to 12GHz
Ku band
12 to 18GHz
K band
18 to 26.5GHz
Ka band
26.5 to 40GHz Satellite Internet
Q band
30 to 50GHz
U band
40 to 60GHz
TV transmission,
Communication
Experimental
Experimental
FREQUENCIES For Uplink &
Down link
Uplink uses higher frequency than the
down link.
Frequency of satellite is always specified
as
UPLINK frequency/ Down link Frequency
e.g. C band 6/4 GHz
Ku band14/11 GHz
Ka band30/20 GHz
Signal Propagation DELAY
Using c= 3*10 ^ 8 m/s & time=
distance(altitude)/ speed
Uplink delay from earth station to
Satellite.
Round trip delay 4* uplink delay.
All other delays in signal coding, compression, & processing on
Satellite & earth Station are neglected.
orbit
Average
altitude of
Orbit
Uplink
Delay
Round trip
delay
LEO
800 Km
2.7 ms
10.8 ms
MEO
10,355 Km
34.5 ms
138 ms
GEO
35,786 Km
119.3 ms
480 ms =
Second
Round trip delay of GEO
signal
Transponder
The BW of satellite is divided into
channels allowing many earth stations to
use this BW. The Electronics to support
each channel is called Transponder.
Each transponder consist of band pass
filter to select particular channel, down
converter & output amplifier.
Each satellite can have a large number of
active & spare transponders typically 12
to 44 active transponder in each satellite.
The total BW of transponder is usually
36,54 or 72 MHz.
BW of satellite divided in 24 (bi
directional) transponder
Transponder
Effect of rain on signal
Rain heavily effects the wireless
communication above 10 GHz.
So Ku band & Ka band will be
effected by rain & specially above 20
GHz the Ka Band link can fail during
heavy rain fall.
Why fup is always Higher than
fdown?
1. The beam of higher frequency is narrow & that of lower is
broad. As the earth station has to target the signal to a
small point (satellite) in space so it does it by using narrow
beam produced by higher frequency. While the Satellite has
to cover a large area on earth to provide services to many
Earth station so it does it by using broad beam produced by
lower frequency.
2. As the rain effects higher frequencies more than lower one
so they need to be boosted up more to overcome the
propagation losses. The Energy can be given to signal much
more easily on earth than on satellite because the satellite
has limited power resources like solar cells & batteries so
we use higher frequencies on Earth & amplify them with
enough power supply resources we have on Earth
Up & down frequencies of C
band
Satellite Signals
Base band signals can be analog or
digital. But the final signal
transmitted towards the satellite or
from the satellite is always analog as
it is an RF signal.
Increasing bandwidth of
Satellite
Multiplexing
Use of Audio & video compression in
telephone & TV signals.
Frequency Reuse
1. Same frequency but orthogonal
polarization.
2. Increasing angular spacing of two
satellites in same orbit using similar
frequencies.
Life of Satellite
A satellite has two life.
1.Design life: it is the predicted life of the
electronic systems working in satellite.
2.Maneuver life: It is the life during which full
maneuver capabilities exist in satellite to
change its position. It depends on fuel tank
storage capacity & it is usually less than
design life.
At the end of useful GEO satellite life , it is
raised to graveyard orbit.
Uses of Satellite
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Military communication
Telecommunication
Satellite phone.
VSAT (very small aperture terminal)
Cable TV
DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite) TV (with Dish Antenna)
GPS (Global Positioning System)
Satellite Internet
Weather forecasting
Photography
GIS (geographical Information System)
X-Ray & infrared view of universe
Navigation
Deep Space exploration
& many more
