Communication Systems
Lecture 9
Professor A.K.Brown
Satellite Communications
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• Basic parameters of any communications
link:
– Bandwidth
– Power(signal strength)
– Noise
– Delay (Round Trip Time)
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1
Wireless channels:some key points
• Electromagnetic waves:
– Spectrum
– Wavelength and frequency relationship
• Link Budget (power)
– Antenna Gain
– Range loss
• Noise Temperature
Lecture 9 2006 3
Mobile User
Link (MUL) MUL
Gateway Link
(GWL) GWL
small cells
(spotbeams)
base station
or gateway
Public
Cellular Cellular
ISDN Telephone
Network Network
System
User data
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2
Satellite Communications
courtesy Ecliptic Enterprises Inc
Lecture 9 2006 5
Orbits
Keplers Law: In general
satellites have elliptic orbits
( circular a special case of
ellipse)
Newton: Gravitation
attraction must equal centri-
petal force
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3
Circular Orbit
GME ms = ms v2
r2 r
v=2π
Τ
Τ is the orbital
period
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Orbits
• So for circular orbit, the orbital period, T is:
T2= 4π2 r3
GME
With G the Universal Gravitational Constant
ME the mass of the earth
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4
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Some consequences
• Low orbits mean satellite period decreases
• The rotational period, T does not depend on the
mass of the satellite
• If we choose the right height and place the
satellite above the earths equator we can make
the orbital period equal one rotation of the earth
– Geostationary orbit
Note in practice higher order effects become important (eg gravitational effect
of the moon )
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5
Sidereal Day
• Consider a point on the earths equator
directly below a object fixed and in the
equatorial plane .The sidereal day is the
time the earth takes to rotate once so that
the object returns to being directly
overhead.
• The mean Sidereal day is 23hrs 56min
4.1sec NOT 24 hrs!
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Geostationary orbit
• Occurs when:
Orbital period, T
= Sidereal Day
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6
Satellite period
24
satellite
period [h]
20
16
12
4
synchronous altitude
10 20 30 40 x106 m
radius
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7
Some Circular Orbits
• LEO (Low Earth Orbit): ~ 500 - 1500
km
• MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) or ICO
(Intermediate Circular Orbit): ~ 6000 -
20000 km
• GEO: geostationary orbit, ~ 35500 km
above earth surface in equatorial
plane
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GEO
HEO MEO (ICO)
LEO inner and outer Van
Allen belts
earth
1000
10000
35768
km
Van-Allen-Belts:ionized particles 2000 - 6000 km
and 15000 - 30000 km above earth surface
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8
• Satellites are used for a wide range of
applications including:
– Navigation
– Weather Forecasting
– Environmental Monitoring
– Communications
• Different applications use different orbits
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Courtesy Boeing/Hughes Space Systems
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A common misconception
• ‘Satellites act as mirrors’.
THEY DO NOT!
• Satellites act as transponders. The
simplest is a ‘bent pipe’ satellite- the signal
is received, frequency converted and re-
transmitted
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11
‘Bent Pipe’ Configuration
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Regenerative Transponder
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12
Some basic Parameters-
Geostationary Satellite Link
Uplink Path Downlink
length or Path length
Altitude or Range, R
Range, R
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13
Delay Time
Delay time: given a range(distance to satellite) of R
Delay time = R per path
c
With c the velocity of light
Each path comprises of a path to satellite
then back to ground
So immediately below satellite we have
Delay time ~ 35,500,000 x2 ~ 237 milliseconds
3 x 108
So an RTT of 2x237 = 474 millisecs
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14
• Consider now the link budget (in dBs)
Pr=Pt-Lt+Gt- 20x Log10 4πR + Gr - Lr
λ
Where Pt is transmitted power ,Gt is the antenna gain
at the transmitter, Lt loss in transmitter, R is the satellite
RANGE (NOT orbit radius) Gr receive Gain, Lr receiver
losses
Lecture 9 2006 29
Range Loss
• Communications satellites typically
operate either 4 to 6 GHz or 11 to 14 GHz
• Range loss in free space can be in excess
of 195dB
• To this must be added loss due to
atmosphere (typically 0.5 to 1db) and
losses due to bad weather (can be 10dB)
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15
• Now Power transmitted (Pt) is limited as
the satellite is powered by batteries
running off solar cells. Also a satellite has
to handle many simultaneous users.
• So, to get a certain bit rate we need to
consider high antenna gains.
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• Antenna Gain is related to the
concentration of power in angular terms-
the higher the gain the narrower the beam.
• High Ground Station gains mean big
antennas –expensive for many users, but
are used extensively commercially
• Is there a way of helping to get lower cost
ground stations?
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16
Satellite footprint
• As the satellite is not moving with respect
to the earth one way to help is to use
large, sophisticated antennas on the
satellite . These can then be tailored to
give antenna beams shaped to cover
particular countries or continents.
• The narrower the coverage area the
higher the gain but requires bigger
antennas on the satellite.
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Advantages of Geostationary
Satellites
• Remains essentially fixed in space with
respect to the user- major advantage
• Only three satellites needed to cover the
globe(approximately 42% of earth surface
per satellite, but cant cover poles)
• Well proven, simple architecture
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Disadvantages
• Geostationary orbit is a long way away!
• Need high power from the satellite
• Need high gain antennas on satellite and
ground
• Delay time significant.
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18
What about lower orbits?
• As the satellite now moves over the earths
surface, to maintain communications
requires a constellation.
• There is a highly complex handover
requires between satellites
• Complex satellites with low life but can be
relatively small
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Iridium – in service?
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Inter Satellite Link
(ISL)
Mobile User
Link (MUL) MUL
Gateway Link
(GWL) GWL
small cells
(spotbeams)
base station
or gateway
footprint
Public
Cellular
ISDN Telephone
Network
System
User data
Lecture 9 2006 40
20
Summary
• Satellite Communications allows wide
areas of the globe to be provided with low
infrastructure cost
• Three main types of orbit: geostationary,
low earth and intermediate
In principle elliptic orbits may also be used
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Summary (cont)
• Geostationary has major advantages in
relatively low complexity, ‘stationary
satellites’
• BUT the orbit is high above the earth-
delay time issues, needs gain in both
ground and satellite (note some low rate rate
services can be provided with low gain ground stations)
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21
Summary(cont)
• Both LEO and MEO (ICO) orbits reduce
delay problem substantially and range loss
• BUT need complex systems and satellites
• So far two LEO constellations have been
proven technically but financially not
successful
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