Mobile Communications

Chapter 5: Satellite Systems

 History  Basics
 Orbits  Handover
 Applications  Routing
 History of satellite communication

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
 Orbits I

Four different types of satellite orbits can be identified depending

on the shape and diameter of the orbit:
 GEO: geostationary orbit, ca. 36000 km above earth surface
 LEO (Low Earth Orbit): ca. 500 - 1500 km
 MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) or ICO (Intermediate Circular Orbit):
ca. 6000 - 20000 km
 HEO (Highly Elliptical Orbit) elliptical orbits
 Orbits II

GEO (Inmarsat)

HEO MEO (ICO)

LEO inner and outer Van

(Globalstar, Allen belts
Irdium)

earth

1000
10000

Van-Allen-Belts: 35768
km
ionized particles
2000 - 6000 km and
15000 - 30000 km
above earth surface
 Geostationary satellites

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
 LEO systems

Orbit ca. 500 - 1500 km above earth surface

 visibility of a satellite ca. 10 - 40 minutes
 global radio coverage possible
 latency comparable with terrestrial long distance
connections, ca. 5 - 10 ms
 smaller footprints, better frequency reuse
 but now handover necessary from one satellite to another
 many satellites necessary for global coverage
 more complex systems due to moving satellites

Examples:
Iridium (start 1998, 66 satellites)
 Bankruptcy in 2000, deal with US DoD (free use,
saving from “deorbiting”)
Globalstar (start 1999, 48 satellites)
 Not many customers (2001: 44000), low stand-by times for mobiles
 MEO systems

Orbit ca. 5000 - 12000 km above earth surface

comparison with LEO systems:
 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

Example:
ICO (Intermediate Circular Orbit, Inmarsat) start ca. 2000
 Bankruptcy, planned joint ventures with Teledesic, Ellipso – cancelled
again, start planned for 2003
GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT
GEO and LEO
LEO and GEO
MOLNIYA ORBIT
 Applications

 Traditionally
 weather satellites
 radio and TV broadcast satellites
 military satellites
 satellites for navigation and localization (e.g., GPS)
 Telecommunication
 global telephone connections
 backbone for global networks replaced by fiber optics
 connections for communication in remote places or underdeveloped areas
 global mobile communication

 satellite systems to extend cellular phone systems (e.g., GSM or

AMPS)
 Classical satellite systems

Inter Satellite Link

(ISL)
Mobile User
Link (MUL) MUL
Gateway Link
(GWL) GWL

small cells
(spotbeams)

base station
or gateway
footprint

ISDN PSTN GSM

PSTN: Public Switched User data

Telephone Network
 Basics

Satellites in circular orbits

 attractive force Fg = m g (R/r)²
 centrifugal force Fc = m r ²
 m: mass of the satellite
 R: radius of the earth (R = 6370 km)
 r: distance to the center of the earth
 g: acceleration of gravity (g = 9.81 m/s²)
 : angular velocity ( = 2  f, f: rotation frequency)
Stable orbit
 Fg = F c
2
gR
r3
(2 f ) 2
 Basics

 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
 transparent transponder: only shift of frequencies
 regenerative transponder: additionally signal regeneration
Inclination

plane of satellite orbit

satellite orbit

perigee

inclination 

equatorial plane
 Elevation

Elevation:
angle  between center of satellite beam
and surface

minimal elevation:
elevation needed at least 
to communicate with the satellite t
t pr in
foo
 Link budget of satellites

Parameters like attenuation of received power determined by four

parameters:
 sending power L: Loss
f: carrier frequency
 gain of sending antenna r: distance
c: speed of light
 distance between sender
2
and receiver  4 r f 
 gain of receiving antenna L 
 c 
Problems
 varying strength of received signal due to multipath propagation
 interruptions due to shadowing of signal (no LOS)
Possible solutions
 Link Margin to eliminate variations in signal strength
 satellite diversity (usage of several visible satellites at the same time)
helps to use less sending power
Atmospheric attenuation
Attenuation of
the signal in % Example: satellite systems at 4-6 GHz

50

40 rain absorption

30
fog absorption


20

10
atmospheric
absorption

5° 10° 20° 30° 40° 50°

elevation of the satellite
 Routing

One solution: inter satellite links (ISL)

 reduced number of gateways needed
 forward connections or data packets within the satellite network as
long as possible
 only one uplink and one downlink per direction needed for the
connection of two mobile phones
Problems:
 more complex focusing of antennas between satellites
 high system complexity due to moving routers
 higher fuel consumption
 thus shorter lifetime
Iridium and Teledesic planned with ISL
Other systems use gateways and additionally terrestrial networks
 Handover in satellite systems

Several additional situations for handover in satellite systems

compared to cellular terrestrial mobile phone networks caused
by the movement of the satellites
 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.
SATELLITE COMMUNICATION
SATELLITE IMAGES OF EARTH
INMARSAT and IRIDIUM SATELLITE PHONES