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EASWARI ENGINEERING COLLEGE
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
EC8904 - SATELLITE COMMUNICATION
UNIT – I
SATELLITE ORBITS
1. What is Satellite?
ww An artificial body that is projected from earth to orbit either earth
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(or) another body of solar systems.
Types: Information satellites and Communication Satellites
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2. Define Satellite Communication.
It is defined as the use of orbiting satellites to receive, amplify
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and retransmit data to earth stations.
3. State Kepler’s first law.
will be an ellipse.
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It states that the path followed by the satellite around the primary
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An ellipse has two focal points F1 and F2. The center of mass of the two body
system,
termed the barycenter is always centered on one of the foci. rin
e = [square root of (a2– b2) ] / a
g.n
4. State Kepler’s second law.
e
It states that for equal time intervals, the satellite will sweep out
equal areas in its orbital plane, focused at the barycenter
.
t
5. State Kepler’s third law.
It states that the square of the periodic time of orbit is perpendicular
to the cube of the mean distance between the two bodies.
Where, n = Mean motion of the satellite in rad/sec.
µ= Earth’s geocentric gravitational constant. With the n in radians per
sec. the orbital period in second is given by,
6. Define apogee.
The point farthest from the earth.
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7. Define Perigee.
The point closest from the earth.
8. What is line of apsides?
The line joining the perigee and apogee through the center of the earth.
9. Define ascending node.
The point where the orbit crosses the equatorial plane going from south
to
north.
10. Define descending node.
The point where the orbit crosses the equatorial plane going from north
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south.
to
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11. Define Inclination.
The angle between the orbital plane and the earth’s equatorial plane.
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It is measured at the ascending node from the equator to the orbit going
from east to north.
12. Define mean anomaly.
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It gives an average bvalue of the angular position of the satellite
with reference to the perigee.
13. Define true anomaly.
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rin
It is the angle from perigee to the satellite position, measured at the earth’s
center.
15. What is meant by azimuth angle?
g.n
plane and the plane passing through the earth station, the satellite and
center of earth. e
It is defined as the angle produced by intersection of local horizontal
t
16. Give the 3 different types of applications with respect to satellite systems.
• The largest international system (Intelsat)
• The domestic satellite system (Dom sat) in U.S.
• U.S. National oceanographic and atmospheric
administrations (NOAA)
17. Mention the 3 regions to allocate the frequency for satellite services.
• Region1: It covers Europe, Africa and Mangolia
• Region2: It covers North & South Ameriaca and Greenland.
• Region3: It covers Asia, Australia and South West Pacific.
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18. Give the types of satellite services.
• Fixed satellite service
• Broadcasting satellite service
• Mobile satellite service
• Navigational satellite services
• Meteorological satellite services
19. What is mean by Domsat?
Domestic Satellites. These are used forvoice, data and
video transmissions within the country.
20. What is mean by INTELSAT & SARSAT ?
International Telecommunication Satellite.
Search and rescue satellite.
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21. Define polar-orbiting satellites.
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Polar orbiting satellites orbit the earth in such a way as to cover the
north and south polar regions.
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22. Give the advantage of geostationary orbit.
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There is no necessity for tracking antennas to find the satellite positions.
23. Define look angles.
gi nee
The azimuth and elevation angles of the ground station antenna are
termed as look angles.
24. Write short notes on station keeping.
rin
It is the process of maintenance of satellite’s attitude against
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different factors that can cause drift with time. Satellites need to have their
e
orbits adjusted from time to time, because the satellite is initially placed in
the correct orbit, natural forces induce a progressivedrift.
t
25. What are the geostationary satellites?
The satellites present in the geostationary orbit are called
geostationary satellite. The geostationary orbit is one in which the satellite
appears stationary relative to the earth. It lies in equatorial plane and
inclination is ‘0’. The satellite must orbit the earth in the same direction as the
earth spin. The orbit is circular.
26. What is sun transit outage.
The sun transit is nothing but the sun comes within the beam width
of the earth station antenna. During this period the sun behaves like an
extremely noisy source and it blanks out all the signal from the satellite.
This effect is termed as sun transit outage.
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UNIT – II
SPACE SEGMENT
1. Give the two segments of basic satellite communication.
a. Earth segment (or) ground segment
b. Space segment
2. Write short notes on attitude controlsystem.
It is the system that achieves and maintains the required attitudes.
The main functions of attitude control system include maintaining
accurate satellite position throughout the life span of the system.
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3. What is declination?
The angle of tilt is often referred to as the declination which must not
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be confused with the magnetic declination used in correcting compass
readings.
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4. What is meant by payload?
It refers to the equipment used to provide the service for which the
satellite has been launched.
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5. What is meant by transponder?
gi nee
In a communication satellite, the equipment which provides the
connecting link between the satellite’s transmit and receive antennas is
referred to as the transponder.
6. Write short notes on station keeping. rin
g.n
It is the process of maintenance of satellite’s attitude against
e
different factors that can cause drift with time. Satellites need to have their
orbits adjusted from time to time, because the satellite is initially placed in
the correct orbit, natural forces induce a progressivedrift. t
7. What ismeantby Pitch angle?
Movement of a spacecraft about an axis which is perpendicular to its
longitudinal axis. It is the degree of elevation or depression.
8. What is an propellant?
A solid or liquid substance burnt in a rocket for the purpose of
producing thrust.
9. What is an Yaw?
Yaw is the rotation of a vehicle about its vertical axis.
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10. What is an zero ‘g’?
Zero ‘g’ is a state when the gravitational attraction is opposed by equal
and opposite inertial forces and the body experiences no mechanical stress.
11. Describe the spin stabilized satellites.
In a spin stabilized satellites, the body of the satellite spins at about
30 to 100 rpm about the axis perpendicular to the orbital plane. The
satellites arem normally dual spin satellites with a spinning section and a
despun section on which antennas are mounted. These are kept stationary
with respect to earth by counter rotating the despun section.
12. What is meant by frequency reuse?
ww The carrier with opposite senses of polarization may overlap in frequency.
This technique is known as frequency reuse.
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13. What is meant by spot beamantenna?
A beam generated by a communication satellite antenna of sufficient
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size that the angular spread of sufficient size that the angular spread of the
energy in the beam is very small with the result that a region that is only a
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few hundred km in diameter is illuminated on earth.
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14. What is meant by momentum wheel stabilization?
During the spin stabilization, flywheels may be used rather than
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spinning the satellite. These flywheels are termed as momentum wheels.
15. What is polarization interleaving?
Overlap occurs between channels, but these are alternativelyrin
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polarized left hand circular and right hand circular to reduce interference
to acceptablelevels. This is referred to as polarizationinterleaving.
16. Define S/N ratio.
e
The S/N introduced in the preceding section is used to refer to the ratio
of signal power to noise power at the receiver output. This is known as S/N
t
ratio.
17. What is an intermodulation noise?
Intermodulation distortion in high power amplifier can result in
signal product which appear as noise and it is referred to as
intermodulation noise.
18. What is an antenna loss?
It is added to noise received as radiation and the total antenna noise
temperature is the sum of the equivalent noise temperature of all these
sources.
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19. Define sky noise.
It is a term used to describe the microwave radiation which is
present throughout universe and which appears to originate from matter
in any form, at finite temperature.
20. Define noise factor.
An alternative way of representing amplifier noise is by means of its
noise factor. In
defining the noise factor of an amplifiers, usually taken as 290 k.
21. What is TWTA?
TWTA means Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier. The TWTA is widely used
in transponder to provide the final output power required to the transtube
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and its power supplies.
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22. What is meant by thermal control and why this is necessary in a satellite?
Equipment in the satellite generates heat which has to be removed. The
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element used in the satellite to control thermal heat is called thermal conrol.
The most important consideration is that the satellite’s equipment should
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operate as nearly as possible in a stable temperature environment
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23. What are the functions carried out in TT&C?
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Telemetry- Gathering or measure information about satellite.
Tracking- track the satellite’s movement and send correction signals as
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Required Comment- send information about the satellite to earth station.
24. What is meant by redundantreceiver?
g.n
A duplicate receiver is provided so that if one fails, the other is
automatically switched in. The combination is referred to as a redundant
receiver, meaning that although two are provided, only one is in use at a
given time.
e t
25. List out the advantages of TWT.
The advantage of the TWT over other types of tube amplifiers is that it
can provide amplification over a very wide bandwidth. Input levels to the
TWT must be carefully controlled, however, to minimize the effects of certain
forms of distortion
26. Define input back off.
In a TWTA, the operating point must be backed off to a linear portion of
the transfer characteristic to reduce the effects of intermodulation
distortion.The point from the saturation point to linear region at the input is
called input backoff.
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27. Define diplexer & orthocoupler.
The same feed horn may be used to transmit and receive carriers with
the same polarization. The transmit and receive signals are separated in a
device known as a diplexer,
The polarization separation takes place in a device known as an
orthocoupler, or orthogonal mode transducer (OMT). Separate horns also may be
used for the transmit and receive functions, with both horns using the same
reflector.
UNIT – III
SATELLITE LINK
ww DESIGN
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1. What is a single mode of operation?
A transponder channel abroad a satellite may be fully loaded by a single
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transmission from an earth station. This is referred to as a single access mode
of operation.
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2. What are the methods of multiple access techniques?
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FDMA– Frequency Division Multiple Access
Techniques TDMA – Time Division Multiple Access
Techniques
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2. What is an CDMA?
rin
CDMA – Code Division Multiple Access Techniques
g.n
In this method, each signal is associated with a particular code that is used to
spread the signal in frequency and time.
4. Give the types of CDMA.
• Spread spectrum multiple access
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• Pulse address multiple access
5. What is SCPC?
SCPC means Single Channel Per Carrier. In a thin route circuit, a
transponder channel (36 MHz) may be occupied by a number of single
carriers, each associated with its own voice circuit.
6. What is a thin routeservice?
SCPC systems are widely used on lightly loaded routes, this type of
service being referred to as a thin routeservice.
7. What is an important feature of Intelsat SCPC system?
The system is that each channel is voice activated. This means that on a
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two way telephone conversation only one carriers is operative at any one
time.
8. What is an TDMA? What are the advantages?
TDMA – Time Division Multiple Access Techniques
Only one carrier uses the transponder at any one time, and therefore Inter
modulation products, which results from the non-linear amplification of
multiple carriers are absent. Advantages : The transponder traveling wave
tube can be operated at maximum power output.
9. What is preamble?
Certain time slots at the beginning of each burst are used to carry
timing and synchronizing information. These time slots collectively are
referred to as preamble.
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10. Define guard time.
w.E
It is necessary to prevent the bursts from overlapping. The guard time
will vary from burst to burst depending on the accuracy with which the
various bursts can be positioned within each frame.
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11. What is meant by decoding quenching?
En
In certain phase detection systems, the phase detector must be allowed
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for some time to recover from one burst before the next burst is received by
it. This is known as decoding quenching.
12. What is meant by direct closed loop feedback? nee
rin
The timing positions are reckoned from the last bit of the unique word
in the preamble. The loop method is also known as direct closed loop
feedback.
g.n
13. What is meant by feedback closed loop control?
The synchronization information is transmitted back to an earth
station from a distant, that is termed feedback closed loop control.
e t
14. Define frame efficiency.
It is measure of the fraction of frame time used for the transmission of
traffic.
15. What is meant by digital speech interpolation?
The point is that for a significant fraction of the time, the channel is
available for other transmission and advantages are taken of this in a form of
demand assignment known as digital speech interpolation.
16. What is meant by telephone load activity factor?
The fraction of time a transmission channel is active is known as the
telephone load activity factor.
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17. What are the types of digital speech interpolation?
• Digitaltimeassignmentspeechinterpolation
• Speech predictive encoded communications
18. What is meant by freeze out?
It has assumed that a free satellite channel will be found for any
incoming speed spurt, but there is a finite probability that all channels will be
occupied and the speech spurt lost. Losing a speech spurt in this manner is
referred to as freeze out.
19. What are the advantages of SPEC method over DSI
method? Freeze out does not occur during overload
conditions.
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20. Define satellite switched TDMA?
w.E
Space Division Multiplexing can be realized by switching the antenna
interconnections in synchronism with the TDMA frame rate, this being known
as satellite switched TDMA.
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21. What is SS / TDMA?
/TDMA.
En
A repetitive sequence of satellite switch modes, also referred to as SS
22. What is processing gain?
gi nee
The jamming or interference signal energy is reduced by a factor
known as the processing gain.
23. What is burst code word?
rin
It is a binary word, a copy of which is stored at each earth station.
24. What is meant by burst position acquisition? g.n
correct slot position is known as burst position acquisition.
25. What is an single access?
e
A station just entering, or reentering after a long delay to acquire its
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A transponder channel aboard a satellite may be fully loaded by a single
transmission from earth station.
26. What is an multiple access technique?
A transponder to be loaded by a number of carriers. These may
originate from a number of earth station may transmit one or more of the
carriers. This mode of operation known as multiple access technique.
27. What is meant by space division multiple access?
The satellite as a whole to be accessed by earth stations widely
separated geographically but transmitting on the same frequency that is
known as frequency reuse. This method of access known as space division
multiple access..
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28. What are the limitations of FDMA-satellite access?
a. If the traffic in the downlink is much heavier than that in the
uplink, then FDMA is relatively inefficient.
b. Compared with TDMA, FDMA has less flexibility in reassigning
channels.
c. Carrier frequency assignments are hardwarecontrolled..
29. Write about pre-assigned TDMA satellite access.
Example for pre-assigned TDMA is CSC for the SPADE network. CSC can
accommodate upto 49 earth stations in the network and 1 reference station.
All bursts are of equal length. Each burst contains 128 bits. The bit rate is 128
Kb / s.
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30. Write about demand assigned TDMA satellite access.
The burst length may be kept constant and the number of bursts per
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frame used by the given station is varied when the demand is varied.
asy UNIT – IV SATELLITE ACCESS
AND CODING METHODS
1. Define earth segment
En
gi
Earth segment of a satellite communication system consists of
transmit earth station and receive earth station.
Example : TV Receive Only systems (TVRO systems)
nee
rin
2. Give the difference between KU-band and the C-band receive only
systems. Operating frequency of outdoor unit.
3. What is mean by ODU and IDU.
g.n
ODU – The Home Receiver Outdoor
Unit IDU – The Home Receiver Indoor
Unit e t
4. Explain about MATV system.
MATV – Master Antenna TV system.
It is used to provide reception of DBS TV channels to the user group.
Example : Apartment users It consists of one outdoor unit and various indoor
units. Each user can independently access all the channels.
5. Write about CATV system.
CATV – Community Antenna TV system.
As in MATV system, it consists of oneoutdoor unit and separate feeds for
each sense of polarization.
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6. Define S/N ratio.
The S/N introduced in the preceding section is used to refer to the
ratio of signal power to noise power at the receiver output. This is known as
S/N ratio.
7. What is noise weighting?
The method used to improve the post detection signal to noise
ratio is referred to as noise weighting.
8. What is an EIRP?
EIRP means Equivalent Isotropic Radiated Power. It is a measure of
radiated or
transmitted power of an antenna.
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9. What is noise power spectral density?
Noise power per unit Bandwidth is termed as the noise power
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spectral density.
10. What is an inter modulation noise?
asy
Inter modulation distortion in high power amplifier can result in
signal product which appear as noise and it is referred to as inter
modulation noise.
En
11. What is an antenna loss?
gi
It is added to noise received as radiation and the total antenna noise
nee
temperature is the sum of the equivalent noise temperature of all these
sources.
12. Define noise factor. rin
g.n
An alternative way of representing amplifier noise is by means of its
noise factor. In
defining the noise factor of an amplifiers, usually taken as 290 k.
e
13. A satellite downlink at 12 GHz operates with a transmit power of 6 W and
an antenna gain of 48.2 dB. Calculate the EIRP in dBW.
t
EIRP = 10 log 6 + 48.2 = 56 dBW
14. The range between a ground station and a satellite is 42000 km.
Calculate the free space loss a frequency of 6 GHz.
[Free space loss] = 32.4 + 20 log 42000 + 20 log 6000 = 200.4 dB
15. Define Saturation flux density.
The flux density required at the receiving antenna to produce saturation of
TWTA is termed the saturation fluxdensity.
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UNIT – V
SATELLITE APPLICATIONS
1. Give the 3 different types of applications with respect to satellite systems.
• The largest international system (Intelsat)
• The domestic satellite system (Dom sat) in U.S.
• U.S. National oceanographic and atmospheric administrations (NOAA)
2. Mention the 3 regions to allocate the frequency for satellite services.
a. Region1: It covers Europe, Africa and Mangolia
b. Region2: It covers North & South Ameriaca and Greenland.
c. Region3: It covers Asia, Australia and South West Pacific.
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3. Give the types of satellite services.
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a. Fixed satellite service
b. Broadcasting satellite service
c. Mobile satellite service
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d. Navigational satellite services
e. Meteorological satellite services
4. What is mean by Domsat? En
gi nee
Domestic Satellites. These are used for voice, data and video transmissions
within the country.
5. What is mean by INTELSAT?
International Telecommunication Satellite. rin
6. What is mean by SARSAT? g.n
Search and rescue
satellite.
7. What are the applications of Radarsat?
a. Shipping and fisheries.
e t
b. Ocean feature mapping
d. Iceberg detection
e. Crop monitoring
8. What is ECEF?
Thegeocentric equatorial coordinate system is used with the GPS
system.It is called as earth centered, earth fixed coordinate system.
9. What is dilution of precision?
Position calculations involve range differences and where the ranges
are nearly equal, any error is greatly magnified in the difference. This effect,
brought a result of the satellite geometry is known as dilution of precision.
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10. What is PDOP?
With the GPS system, dilution of position is taken into account through
a factor known as the position dilution of precision.
11. What is DBS?
Satellites are used to provide the broadcast transmissions. It is used
to provide direct transmissions into the home. The service provided is
known as Direct Broadcast Satellite services.
Example : Audio, TV and internet services.
12. Give the frequency range of US DBS systems with high powersatellites.
a. Uplink frequency range is 17.3 GHz to 17.8 GHz
b. Downlink frequency range is 12.2 GHz to 12.7 GHz
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13. Give the frequency range of US DBS systems with medium power satellites.
a. Uplink frequency range is 14 GHz to 14.5 GHz
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b. Downlink frequency range is 11.7 GHz to 12.2 GHz
14. What is DTH?
asy
DBS television is also known as Direct To Home ( DTH ).
En
DTH stands for Direct-To-Home television. DTH is defined as the
reception of satellite programmes with a personal dish in an individual
home.
gi
DTH Broadcasting to home TV receivers take place in the ku band(12
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GHz). This service is known as Direct To Home service.
15. Write about bitrates fordigital
television. It depends format of the rin
picture.
g.n
Uncompressed Bit rate = (Number of pixels in a frame) * (Number of
pixels per second) * (Number of bits used to encode each pixel)
16. Give the satellite mobile services.
a. DBS – Direct Broadcast satellite
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b. VSATS – Very Small Aperture Terminals
c. MSATS – Mobile Satellite Service
d. GPS – Global Positioning Systems
e. Micro Sats
f. Orb Comm – Orbital Communications Corporation
g. Iridium
17. What is GCC and GEC?
GCC - Gateway ControlCenters
GEC – Gateway Earth Stations
18. What is INMARSAT?
It is the first global mobile satellite communication system operated
at Lband and internationally used by 67 countries forcommunication
between ships
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and coast so that emergency life saving may be provided. Also it provides modern
communication services to maritime, land mobile, aeronautical and other users.
19. List out the regions covered by INMARSAT.
• Atlantic ocean region, east (AOR-E)
• Atlantic ocean region, west (AOR-W)
• Indian ocean region (IOR)\• Pacific ocean region (POR)
20. What is INSAT?
INSAT – Indian National Satellite System.
INSAT is a Indian National Satellite System for telecommunications,
broadcasting, meteorology and search and rescue services. It was
commissioned in 1983. INSAT was the largest domestic communication
system in the Asia-Pacific region.
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20. List out the INSAT series.
• INSAT-1 • INSAT-2 •INSAt-2A
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• INSAT-2E • INSAT-3
21. What is GSM?
asy
GSM (Global System for Mobile communications: originally from
Groupe Spécial Mobile) is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the
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world. GSM differs from its predecessors in that both signaling and speech
channels are digital, and thus is considered a second generation (2G) mobile
into the system. gi
phone system. This has also meant that data communication was easy to build
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22. What is GPRS?
rin
General packet radio service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data
g.n
service available to users of the 2G cellular communication systems global
system for mobile communications (GSM), as well as in the 3G systems. In the
2G systems, GPRS provides data rates of 56-114 kbit/s.
23. What is GPS? e t
In the GPS system, a constellation of 24 satellites circles the earth in
near- circular inclined orbits. By receiving signals from at least four of these
satellites, the receiver position (latitude, longitude, and altitude) can be
determined accurately. In effect, the satellites substitute for the geodetic
position markers used in terrestrial surveying. In terrestrial the GPS
system uses one-way transmissions, from satellites to users, so that the
user does not require a transmitter, only a GPS receiver.
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