INTRODUCTION TO

COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
ELE 2116

LECTURE V

Lecturer: Jomo N. Gill

CONCEPTS TO BE EXAMINED

- Satellite communications
- Frequency bands
- The Boeing 601

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SATELLITE COMMUNICATION

 Communications via satellite is possible

because of the placement of the satellites
in geostationary orbit. This means that the
satellite is located at a fixed point
approximately 22,300 mi in altitude above
the equator.

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 At this altitude, the gravitational pulls of

the Earth, the sun, and the moon work
together, along with the centrifugal force
caused by the satellite’s rotation around
the Earth to keep the satellite at a fixed
location above the Earth.

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 This enables the Earth station antennas

to be simplified, since they are pointed in
a fixed direction and do not have to track
a moving object.

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 The satellite communication system
consists of the following:
• Uplink (transmitter)
• Orbiting satellite
• Downlink (receiver)
 The uplink and downlink are called an
Earth station (ground base station), which
will be typically transmitting and receiving
data, video and/or audio, or it can be a
receive-only site.
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 The satellites require a payload of
antennas, transponders, and attitude
controls for communication and
maintaining their location in geostationary
orbit.
 The transponder is an electronic system
performing reception, frequency
translation, and retransmission. The
attitude controls are used for orbital
corrections (station keeping) on the
satellite. 8
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 Satellite systems are ideally suited for global
positioning system (GPS) applications where
the satellite signal is used by the recipient to
determine the user’s exact geometric
coordinates on Earth.
 Satellites are very cost effective for
broadcast-type applications where the
same information is broadcast from one
source to many recipients. They are less
cost effective for point-to-point
communication applications. 11
 FREQUENCY BANDS
 The most desired frequency band for
satellite communication systems is 6 GHz
on the uplink (Earth-to-satellite
transmission) and 4 GHz on the downlink
(satellite-to-Earth transmission).

 In this frequency range, the equipment is

relatively inexpensive, the cosmic noise is
small, and the frequency is low enough
that rainfall does not appreciably attenuate
the signals.
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 Newer satellites operate in higher
frequency bands, because there are so
few vacant spectral assignments in the
6/4-GHz band (C band). The Ku band
satellites use 14 GHz on the uplink and 12
GHz on the downlink. Some new Ku-band
satellites have high-power amplifiers that
feed 120 to 240 W into their transmitting
antenna, as compared with 20 to 40 W
for low- or medium-power satellites.

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 High-power satellites — called direct-
broadcast satellites (DBS) — provide TV
service directly to the homeowner, who
has a small receiving antenna (2 ft or less
in diameter). The resulting system is
called the digital satellite system (DSS) by
the FCC.

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 The most common frequency bands used
in satellite communications are C-band
and Ku-band. The table provides a list of
frequencies commonly used in satellite
communications for many different
applications such as data, voice,
entertainment, news, military,
international broadcast, among others.

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 Each satellite is assigned a synchronous
orbit position and a frequency band in
which to operate. In the 6/4-GHz band,
each satellite is permitted to use a 500-
MHz-wide spectral assignment, and a
typical satellite has 24 transponders
aboard, with each transponder using 36
MHz of the 500-MHz bandwidth
assignment.

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 THE BOEING 601

 An example of a geostationary satellite is

the Boeing 601. Boeing satellites are used
for applications that include DirecTV, very
small aperture terminals (VSAT) business
networks, as well as mobile satellite
communications.

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 The basic Boeing 601 configuration has

up to 48 transponders and 4800 W of
power. The Boeing 601 HP (High Power
version), introduced in 1995, supports up
to 60 transponders and provides up to 10
kW of power.

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