1.

BASIC PRINCIPLES

Introduction: (1) Communication through satellite has extended the range of line of right propagation paths and made possible transoceanic transmission of microwaves with their potentiality for large band widths. (2) In addition to TV signal, it can carry large amount of data (internet, e-mail) and telephone traffic.

(3) Due to inter fenence consideration, communication satellites must maintain a certain separation and thus only a limited number of satellites can be placed in geo-stationary orbit to provide communications for a region. Advantages of satellite communication over terrestrial link:(a) It is capable of transmitting signal long distances without using relay with higher capacity. (b) All the terrestrial relays are point to point whereas satellite circuit can be installed rapidly. (c) Satellite circuit can installed rapidly.

(d) The mobile communication can be easily achieved by satellite system as it has an unique degree of flexibility in inter connecting mobile vehicles. (e) The satellite costs are independent of distance. Disadvantages of Satellite Communication:(a) As the distance between satellite transmitter and receiver is about 75000km and velocity of electromagnetic wave is 3 km/sec, there is a delay of th 1/4 second between the transmission and reception of signal. Thus between talks there is an elapses of half-second and one may feel it annoying.

(b) Repairing any part of satellite after launching it very difficult. (c) More powerful launch vehicles are required to launch geo-stationary satellite, thus the high cost of launching can affect the total cost for communication. (d) High free space loss. Background:(1) The idea of communication using satellite was given by Arthur C.clarke. (2) Satellite communication systems were originally developed to provide longdistance telephone service. (3) In the late 1960s, launch vehicles had been developed that could place a 500kg satellite in geostationary earth orbit(GEO), with a capacity of 5000 telephone circuits, marking the start of an era of expansion for telecommunication satellites. (4) Geostationary satellites were starts carrying transoceanic and transoceanic continental telephone calls. (5) For the first time, live television links could be established across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to carry news and sporting events. (6) The geostationary orbit is preferred for all high capacity communication satellite system because a satellite in GEO appears to be geostationary over a fixed point on the ground. (7) In the populated parts of the world, the geo stationary orbit is filled with satellites every  operating in almost every available frequency band. (8) Geo satellites have been supplemented by the low and medium earth orbits satellites for special application. Low earth orbit (LEO) satellites can provide satellite telephone and data services over continents or over the entire world, and by 2000 three systems were in orbit or nearing completion, with a total of 138LEO satellites.

(9) LEO satellites are used for earth imaging and surveillance. Although not strictly a satellite communication systems, the Global positioning Systems (GPS), which uses 24medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites, has revolutionized navigation.

General Structure of Satellite Communication:-

The block diagram of the general structure of a satellite communication system is a shown in fig. On the guidelines of WARC-1979 commercial communication satellites use a frequency band of 500 bandwidth near 6 for uplink and another 500 bandwidth near 4 for downlink

transmission. The 500 avocation is usually divided in to 12 channels of approximately 40 each and each channel transmits power of typically.510watts. For these 12 channels 12 transponders are used to carry one. TV channel or about 1500 analog voice signals. If digital modulation is used, transponders data rate of 50 to 100 MB available. Brief History of Satellite Communications:(1) Satellite communications began in October 1957 with the launch by the USSR of a small satellite called sputnik-I. It was the first artificial earth satellite. (2) The first satellite successfully launched by the United States was Explore I, from Cape Canaveral on January31, 1958 on a Juno I rocket. (3) The score satellite was essentially the core of the Atlas ICBM (inter continental ballistic missile) booster with a small pay load in the nose. (4) The first true communication satellites, Telstar I and II, were launched in July 1962 and May 1963. The Telstar satellite was built by Bell Telephone Laboratories and used c-band transponders adapted from terrestrial microwave link equipment. The uplink was at 6389 and the downlink was at 4169 , with 50bandwidth. The Telstar satellites were launched into what is now called a medium earth orbit, with periods of 15 and 225min this allowed transatlantic links to operate for about 20min while the satellite was mutually visible. General characteristics of satellite communication:(1) Communication circuits or broadcasting systems targeting a wide area can be easily set up. (2) Communications circuits or broadcasting systems robust against natural disasters can be established. (3) Communication services like multi-destination delivery and Videocon farencing and broadcasting services like high-definition television can be easily provided. (4) A communication circuit can be easily set up with any point or ground in the case of satellite communications, and broadcasting unaffected by terrestrial structures can be achieved due to the high angle of incidence of satellite radio waves in the case of satellite broad casting. On the other hand, satellite communication using geostationary or bits have the following disadvantages.

(1) The round-trip time for a radio wave to travel between a satellite and the earth is about one-fourth of a second. This means that delay time can become significant if a signal has to make a number of trips back and forth between the ground and a satellite, which would make conversing difficult in the case of telephone calls. (2) The propagation distance of a radio wave is long resulting in large propagation loss and generally low receiving levels. This situation calls for low-noise receivers large parabola antennas, and high-output transmitters. Satellite broadcasting has following disadvantage:(1) It is inappropriate for extremely localized broadcasting. (2) It requires measure for minimizing leakage of radio waves (spillover) as much as possible to neighboring countries. Satellite Frequency Allocation and Band Spectrum:In the lower frequency range, six frequency bands have been allocated for satellite communication as described below:-

Band

User

Downlink bands (in ) 0.25 to 0.27 3.7 to 4.2 7.2 to 7.7 11.7 to 12.2 17.7 to 21.2 20.2 to 21.2

Uplink band (in 0.29 to 0.31 5.9 to 6.4 7.9 to 8.4 14.0 to 14.5 27.5 to 30.0 43.5 to 45.5

UHF C-band X-band Ku-band K-band Ka-band

Military Commercial Military Commercial Commercial Military

Frequency band

Name

Fixed satell service

Broadcasting satellite service

Mobile satell service

137 400 1.6/1.5 2.6/2.5 6/4 8/7 14/12 30/20

VHP UHP L S C X

or Quasimillimetewave O, Q or Millimeterwave

50/40

Most communications satellites providing fixed satellite services (such as INTELSET) use the 6/4 band (where the frequency for the uplink from the earth station to the space station is given as the numerator and for the down link from the space station to an earth station is given as denominator) called c band and the 14/12 band ( band). Japan CS-3 satellite uses the 30/20 quasimillimeter nave band ( band). Also in Japan, the communication and Broad casting Engineering Test Satellite (COMSETS) launched in 1998 used the 50/40 millimeter wave band.

Satellite Applications:(1) Application are innumerous but can be broadly classifieds: (2) In communication such as T.V. telephone, data transfer such as e-mail and internet are mostly done through different communication satellite these days. (3) Remote sensing and earth observation can be done with the help of lower earth orbit satellite. (4) Military applications like short distance local communication from one camp to another, to study the location of the enemy etc.