Mobile Computing – Satellite Systems

1945 Arthur C. Clarke publishes an essay about “Extra Terrestrial

Relays”
1957 First satellite SPUTNIK
1960 First reflecting communication satellite ECHO
1963 First geostationary satellite SYNCOM
1965 First commercial geostationary satellite Satellit “Early Bird”
(INTELSAT I): 240 duplex telephone channels or 1 TV channel, 1.5
years lifetime
1976 Three MARISAT satellites for maritime communication
1982 First mobile satellite telephone system INMARSAT-A
1988 First satellite system for mobile phones and data
communication INMARSAT-C
1993 First digital satellite telephone system
1998 Global satellite systems for small mobile phones

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 Applications
Traditionally
Weather satellites
Radio and TV broadcast satellites
Military satellites
Satellites for navigation and localization (e.g G.P.S)
Telecommunication – Mobile
Global telephone backbones – now replaced by fiber
optics
Connections for communication in remote
places/underdeveloped areas
Global mobile communication

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Classical satellite systems

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 Basics of satellite Systems
Elliptical or circular orbits
Complete rotation time depends on distance satellite-earth
Inclination: angle between orbit and equator
Elevation: angle between satellite and horizon
LOS (Line of Sight) to the satellite necessary for
connection
 High elevation needed, less absorption due to e.g. buildings
Uplink: connection base station - satellite
Downlink: connection satellite - base station
Typically separated frequencies for uplink and downlink
 Transponder used for sending/receiving and shifting of
frequencies

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 Elevation
Elevation: Angle between center of satellite beam and
surface
Minimal elevation: Elevation needed atleast to
communicate with the satellite

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Factors Determining Satellite Systems
Parameters like attenuation or received power
determined by four parameters
Sending power
Gain of sending antenna
Distance between sender and receiver
Gain of receiving antenna
Problems
varying strength of received signal due to multipath
propagation
interruptions due to shadowing of signal (no LOS)

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Atmospheric attenuation

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 Satellite Orbits
Four different types of satellite orbits can be identified
depending on the shape and diameter of the orbit:
Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO): 36000 km above
earth surface
 Most of TV & radio broadcast satellites
Medium Earth Orbit (MEO): 5000-12,000 km
 Intermediate Circular Orbit (ICO)
Low Earth Orbit (LEO): 500-1500 km
Highly Eliptical Orbit (HEO): satellites with non-
circular orbits.

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Satellite Orbits

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 Geostationary satellites (GEO)
Orbit 35.786 km distance to earth surface, orbit in
equatorial plane (inclination 0°)
Complete rotation exactly one day, satellite is synchronous
to earth rotation
 Fix antenna positions, no adjusting necessary
 Satellites typically have a large footprint (up to 34% of earth

surface), therefore difficult to reuse frequencies

 Bad elevations in areas with latitude above 60° due to fixed
position above the equator
 High transmit power needed

 High latency due to long distance (ca. 275 ms)

Not useful for global coverage for small mobile phones and
data transmission, typically used for radio and TV
transmission
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 Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
Global radio coverage possible
Smaller footprints, better frequency reuse
Handover necessary from one satellite to another
Many satellites necessary for global coverage
More complex systems due to moving satellites

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 Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)
Slower moving satellites
Less satellites needed
Simpler system design
For many connections no hand-over needed
Higher latency, ca. 70 - 80 ms
Higher sending power needed
Special antennas for small footprints needed

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 Routing
Satellite Routing: Routing of data transmission
from one user to another.
Two strategies:
 Between Inter satellite link (ISL)
 Traffic is routed between the satellites

 Advantage: only one uplink and one downlink , offers lower

latency
 Disadvantage: system complexity due to additional antennas

 Relayed through earth station

 Traffic is routed between earth station and satellite

 Disadvantage: two uplinks and two downlinks needed

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 Localization
Satellite gateways: maintains several registers
HLR: stores all static information about a user as well as
his/her current location
VLR: maintains the last known location of a mobile user
Satellite User Mapping Register(SUMR): Stores the
current position of satellites and a mapping of each user to
the current satellite
Registration: mobile station sends a signal which may be
received by one or several satellites
Satellites receiving such signal report this event to gateway
Gateway determines the location of the user via the location
of the satellites
User data is requested from the user’s HLR, VLR & SUMR are
updated
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 Handover
Handover in satellite systems caused by the movement of satellites
Four types
Intra-satellite handover
 Handover from one spot beam to another
 Mobile station still in the footprint of the satellite, but in another cell

Inter-satellite handover
 Handover from one satellite to another satellite
 Mobile station leaves the footprint of one satellite

Gateway handover
 Handover from one gateway to another
 Mobile station still in the footprint of a satellite, but gateway leaves the
footprint
Inter-system handover
 Handover from the satellite network to a terrestrial cellular network
 Mobile station can reach a terrestrial network again which might be cheaper,
has a lower latency etc

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