Executive Summary

Satellites can provide global, ubiquitous and multipoint communications. Not surprisingly, satellite
technology has become a flexible and cost-effective solution for domestic and international
networks, irrespective of the user’s geo-graphic location. Wireline and wireless lack this ability to
leap across continents and oceans, often linking some of the world’s most remote spots.

Satellite technology can thus become a solution for some of the most complicated access
problems, connecting cities across a large landmass, where copper or fiber would be cost
prohibitive
The benefits of satellite communications have expanded its usage. Today, satellites’ diverse
purposes encompass wide area network communication, cellular backhaul, Internet trunking,
television broadcasting and rural tele-phony. Satellites are also on the frontiers of such
advanced applications as telemedicine, distance learning.

C-Band

Downlink: 3.7 – 4.2 GHz

Uplink: 5.9 – 6.4 GHz

Advantages:

 Less disturbance from heavy rain fade

 Cheaper bandwidth

Disadvantages:

Needs a larger satellite dish (diameters of minimum 2-3m)

 Powerful (expensive RF unit )

 More expensive hardware
 Possible Interference from microwave links

Ku Band

Downlink: 11.7 – 12.2 GHz

Uplink: 14.0 – 14.5 GHz

Advantages:

 No interference from microwave links and other technologies

 Operates with a smaller satellite dish (diameters from 0.9m) -> cheaper and more easy installation
 Needs less power -> cheaper RF unit
Disadvantages:

 More expensive capacity

 Sensitive to heavy rain fade (significant attenuation of the signal) / possibly can be managed by
appropriate dish size or transmitter power.

The following bands are commonly used:

- C-band was the first band to be used for satellite communication systems. However, when the band
became overloaded (due to the same frequency being used by terrestrial microwave links) satellites were
built for the next available frequency band, the Ku-band. Today C-Band also gets disturbed by wirless radio
links in particular uncontrolled spreading in Africa. Interferrances can get reduced by cost intensive
microwave filters level421 generally recommends each customer who plans to use C-Band.

- Ku-band is typically used for broadcasting and 2-way Internet connections.

Architecture
A satellite network providing interactive broadband services, consists of three distinct segments as shown in this
figure:

Bandwidth and Power

satellite capacity is the combination of bandwidth and power,
There is a relationship between the amount of band-width and the amount of power
available from the satellite. Each transponder has a maximum amount of pow-er and
a maximum amount of bandwidth available to it. Therefore, if a customer has a small
antenna, he may use all of the power available to him before he has used all of the
bandwidth. Conversely a customer with a large antenna may use all of the
bandwidth available but still have power available.

Duplexing and Multiple-Access Techniques

A channel must often be shared between different directions of communication
(duplexing) and between different users (multiple access).
 Duplexing
A full duplex communication system allows signals to flow in both
directions simultaneously while a half-duplex system only allows one
party to talk at a time. System that can only be used in one direction are
called simplex.
Full duplex can be implemented in two different ways:
- FDD: Frequency Division Duplexing:
.Provides two distinct bands of frequencies for every user, one for downlink
and one for uplink.
. A large interval between these frequency bands must be allowed so that
interference is minimized.

Figure 1 Frequency Division Duplexing

- TDD Time Division Duplexing:

the two directions alternate transmitting and receiving in two separate time slots to provide both a forward and
reverse link.

. system shares the same band and assigns alternative time slots for transmit and receive operations.

Figure 2Time Division Duplexing

Multiple Access Techniques:

A transponder channel aboard a satellite may be fully loaded by a single transmission from an earth station.
This is referred to as a single access mode of operation. It is also possible, and more common, for a
transponder to be loaded by a number of carries. These may originate from a number of earth stations
geographically separate, and each earth station may transmit one or more of the carries. This mode of
operation is termed multiple access. The need for multiple access arises because more than two earth
stations, in general, will be within the service area of a satellite.
The most commonly used methods of multiple access are:

- FDMA (frequency division multiple access)

- TDMA (time-division multiple access)
- CDMA (code-division multiple access)

Network Topologies
Satellite communication supports a number of different network topologies,
depending on the application. At its simplest, satellite can support a simplex (one
direction) or duplex (two directions) link between two Earth Stations. More complex
networks can be fashioned to support ”Star” or ”Mesh” topologies, especially in
corporate VSAT applications. In a Star topology there will be a ”hub” Earth Station,
at the center of the network. Content originates at the hub, which features a large
antenna. The hub can control the network through a Network Management System
(NMS), which allows the network operator to monitor and control
all components of the network. Outbound information from the hub is sent up to the
satellite, which receives it, amplifies it and beams it back to earth for reception by
the remote Earth Station(s). The remote locations send information inbound to the
hub. In a Mesh topology, remote Earth Stations can also communicate with each
other via the satellite, but without information being sent through the hub. This is
common for international voice and data traffic via satellite. This is also referred to
as a community of Earth Stations.

TYPES OF SATELLITES (BASED ON ORBITS)

Geostationary or geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO)
GEO satellites are synchronous with respect to earth. Looking from a fixed point from Earth.
These satellites are placed in the space in such a way that only three satellites are sufficient to
provide connection throughout the surface of the earth. The orbit of these satellites is circular.
There are three conditions which lead to geostationary satellites.
2- The satellite should be placed 36,000 km above the surface of the earth.
3- These satellites must travel in the direction of motion of earth, that is
eastward.
4- The inclination of satellite with respect to earth must be 0°.
. These satellites are used for TV and radio broadcast, weather forecast and also, these
satellites are operating as backbones for the telephone networks.

Disadvantages of GEO:
The poles of the earth have more problems receiving these satellite signals
due to the low elevation, larger antennas are needed in this case, the transmit
power is high which causes problems for battery powered devices. These
satellites cannot be used for small mobile phones. The biggest problem for
voice and also data communication is the high latency
Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites:
These satellites are placed 500-1500 km above the surface of the earth. As LEOs circulate on a
lower orbit, hence they exhibit a much shorter period that is 95 to 120 minutes. LEO systems try to
ensure a high elevation for every spot on earth to provide a high quality communication link.
  The delay for packets delivered via a LEO is relatively low. Smaller footprints of LEOs allow
for better frequency reuse, similar to the concepts used for cellular networks. LEOs can
provide a much higher elevation in Polar Regions and so better global coverage.
Disadvantages: The biggest problem of the LEO concept is the need for many satellites if
global coverage is to be reached. The short time of visibility with a high elevation requires
additional mechanisms for connection handover between different satellites. The high number
of satellites combined with the fast movements resulting in a high complexity of the whole
satellite system. One general problem of LEOs is the short lifetime of about five to eight years
due to atmospheric drag and radiation from the inner Van Allen belt 1.

Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites:

MEO can be positioned somewhere between LEO and GEO, using orbits around 10,000 km. The
system only requires a dozen satellites which is more than a GEO system, a MEO can cover
larger populations, so requiring fewer handovers.
Disadvantages: Again, due to the larger distance to the earth, delay increases to about 70–80 ms.
The satellites need higher transmit power and special antennas for smaller footprints.

RADIO WAVE PROPAGATION

Introduction
Radio propagation is the behaviour of radio waves when they are transmitted from a point to
another point or various points. radio waves are affected by the phenomena of:
- Reflection
- Refraction
- Scattering
- Diffraction
- Absorption

ATMOSPHERIC LOSSES
Multiple losses occur due to the Earth’s atmosphere. Losses because the earth conditions or
because the energy absorption done by the various gazes present in the atmosphere

IONOSPHERE EFFECT

This layer contains free electrons which are charged due to solar radiation,
these ions move together across the ionosphere in clusters called clouds so
when the signal pass through such electron’s clouds fluctuations are caused
also another effects seen on the signal include: absorption, frequency change
and polarization rotation.
 ANTENNAS
An antenna is a device for converting electromagnetic radiation in space into electrical currents in
conductors or vice-versa, depending on whether it is being used for receiving or for transmitting,
respectively.

Satellite network
The simplest form of satellite networks is the point-to-point or point-to-multipoint
configuration, however there is often a need for several earth stations to be
interconnected through the same transponder, multipoint-to-multipoint as shown in
figure 1. The methods for allowing several users to utilise the same transponder are
called multiple access techniques. The transponder is a resource which can be
characterised by its available power and bandwidth.

There are basically three

methods of multiple access:
- Frequency Division Multiple
Access(FDMA)
- Time Division Multiple
Access(TDMA)
- Code Division Multiple
Access(CDMA)

Figure 3 satellite network configurations

What is FEC?

FEC is a process in which a transmitter of digital data adds extra information known as check bits to the data stream.
The receiver analyzes the check bit information to locate and correct errors.

What are the benefits of FEC?

FEC reduces the number of transmission errors, extends the operating range, and reduces the power requirements
for communications systems. FEC also increases the effective systems throughput, even with the extra check bits
added to the data bits, by eliminating the need to retransmit data corrupted by random noise

What are the tradeoffs involved in FEC?

In general, the greater the number of check bits added, the greater the error-correcting capability of the given code.
Of course, after a while, the check bits themselves become the source of errors, and the check bits use up bandwidth
that could otherwise be used for data bits. The efficiency of a coding scheme is measured by the number of
redundant bits that must be added to detect and correct a given number of errors. FEC systems are classified by the
number of bits added to the data stream. For example, in some FEC systems, the number of redundant bits is equal
to the number of data bits. This makes the total bit-rate double that of the original data. This is known as a “rate
one-half” (1/2) scheme. Similarly, there may be rate 3/4, rate 7/8 and other such schemes that add fewer check bits
to the data bits.

FEC requires that data first be encoded. The original user data to be transmitted over the channel is called
information bits, while the data after the addition of error-correction information is called coded bits.

A common requirement, for example, is to increase the throughput in a power-limited system. Assume that the
desired QoS is a BER of 10-6. Without coding, a receiver requires a signal-to-noise ratio corresponding to an Eb/No of
10.5 dB. If the (64,57)2 TPC is used, this QoS can be maintained with an Eb/No of 3.2 dB. This is a 7.3-dB
improvement. Therefore, the same signal energy can be "spread out" across 5.3 times as many information bits.
Plus, the FEC will ensure the required QoS.

Satellite uplink and downlink Analysis and Design