Communication Systems

Lecture 9
Professor A.K.Brown

Satellite Communications

Lecture 9 2006 1

• Basic parameters of any communications

link:
– Bandwidth
– Power(signal strength)
– Noise
– Delay (Round Trip Time)

Lecture 9 2006 2

1
Wireless channels:some key points

• Electromagnetic waves:
– Spectrum
– Wavelength and frequency relationship
• Link Budget (power)
– Antenna Gain
– Range loss
• Noise Temperature
Lecture 9 2006 3

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

small cells
(spotbeams)

base station
or gateway

Public
Cellular Cellular
ISDN Telephone
Network Network
System

User data

Lecture 9 2006 4

2
Satellite Communications

courtesy Ecliptic Enterprises Inc

Lecture 9 2006 5

Orbits

Keplers Law: In general

satellites have elliptic orbits
( circular a special case of
ellipse)
Newton: Gravitation
attraction must equal centri-
petal force

Lecture 9 2006 6

3
 Circular Orbit

GME ms = ms v2
r2 r

v=2π
Τ
Τ is the orbital
period
Lecture 9 2006 7

Orbits
• So for circular orbit, the orbital period, T is:

T2= 4π2 r3
GME

With G the Universal Gravitational Constant

ME the mass of the earth

Lecture 9 2006 8

4
 Lecture 9 2006 9

Some consequences
• Low orbits mean satellite period decreases
• The rotational period, T does not depend on the
mass of the satellite
• If we choose the right height and place the
satellite above the earths equator we can make
the orbital period equal one rotation of the earth
– Geostationary orbit

Note in practice higher order effects become important (eg gravitational effect
of the moon )

Lecture 9 2006 10

5
 Sidereal Day
• Consider a point on the earths equator
directly below a object fixed and in the
equatorial plane .The sidereal day is the
time the earth takes to rotate once so that
the object returns to being directly
overhead.
• The mean Sidereal day is 23hrs 56min
4.1sec NOT 24 hrs!

Lecture 9 2006 11

Geostationary orbit

• Occurs when:
Orbital period, T
= Sidereal Day

Lecture 9 2006 12

6
 Satellite period
24
satellite
period [h]
20

16

12

4
synchronous altitude

10 20 30 40 x106 m
radius

Lecture 9 2006 13

Lecture 9 2006 14

7
 Some Circular Orbits
• LEO (Low Earth Orbit): ~ 500 - 1500
km
• MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) or ICO
(Intermediate Circular Orbit): ~ 6000 -
20000 km
• GEO: geostationary orbit, ~ 35500 km
above earth surface in equatorial
plane
Lecture 9 2006 15

GEO

HEO MEO (ICO)

LEO inner and outer Van

Allen belts

earth

1000

10000

35768
km

Van-Allen-Belts:ionized particles 2000 - 6000 km

and 15000 - 30000 km above earth surface

Lecture 9 2006 16

8
• Satellites are used for a wide range of
applications including:
– Navigation
– Weather Forecasting
– Environmental Monitoring
– Communications
• Different applications use different orbits

Lecture 9 2006 17

Lecture 9 2006 18

9
 Lecture 9 2006 19

Courtesy Boeing/Hughes Space Systems

Lecture 9 2006 20

10
 Lecture 9 2006 21

A common misconception
• ‘Satellites act as mirrors’.
THEY DO NOT!
• Satellites act as transponders. The
simplest is a ‘bent pipe’ satellite- the signal
is received, frequency converted and re-
transmitted

Lecture 9 2006 22

11
‘Bent Pipe’ Configuration

Lecture 9 2006 23

Regenerative Transponder

Lecture 9 2006 24

12
 Some basic Parameters-
Geostationary Satellite Link

Uplink Path Downlink

length or Path length
Altitude or Range, R
Range, R

Lecture 9 2006 25

Lecture 9 2006 26

13
 Delay Time
Delay time: given a range(distance to satellite) of R

Delay time = R per path

c
With c the velocity of light
Each path comprises of a path to satellite
then back to ground
So immediately below satellite we have

Delay time ~ 35,500,000 x2 ~ 237 milliseconds

3 x 108
So an RTT of 2x237 = 474 millisecs
Lecture 9 2006 27

Lecture 9 2006 28

14
• Consider now the link budget (in dBs)

Pr=Pt-Lt+Gt- 20x Log10 4πR + Gr - Lr

λ

Where Pt is transmitted power ,Gt is the antenna gain

at the transmitter, Lt loss in transmitter, R is the satellite
RANGE (NOT orbit radius) Gr receive Gain, Lr receiver
losses

Lecture 9 2006 29

Range Loss
• Communications satellites typically
operate either 4 to 6 GHz or 11 to 14 GHz
• Range loss in free space can be in excess
of 195dB
• To this must be added loss due to
atmosphere (typically 0.5 to 1db) and
losses due to bad weather (can be 10dB)

Lecture 9 2006 30

15
• Now Power transmitted (Pt) is limited as
the satellite is powered by batteries
running off solar cells. Also a satellite has
to handle many simultaneous users.
• So, to get a certain bit rate we need to
consider high antenna gains.

Lecture 9 2006 31

• Antenna Gain is related to the

concentration of power in angular terms-
the higher the gain the narrower the beam.
• High Ground Station gains mean big
antennas –expensive for many users, but
are used extensively commercially
• Is there a way of helping to get lower cost
ground stations?

Lecture 9 2006 32

16
 Satellite footprint
• As the satellite is not moving with respect
to the earth one way to help is to use
large, sophisticated antennas on the
satellite . These can then be tailored to
give antenna beams shaped to cover
particular countries or continents.
• The narrower the coverage area the
higher the gain but requires bigger
antennas on the satellite.

Lecture 9 2006 33

Lecture 9 2006 34

17
 Advantages of Geostationary
Satellites

• Remains essentially fixed in space with

respect to the user- major advantage
• Only three satellites needed to cover the
globe(approximately 42% of earth surface
per satellite, but cant cover poles)
• Well proven, simple architecture
Lecture 9 2006 35

Disadvantages
• Geostationary orbit is a long way away!
• Need high power from the satellite
• Need high gain antennas on satellite and
ground
• Delay time significant.

Lecture 9 2006 36

18
 What about lower orbits?
• As the satellite now moves over the earths
surface, to maintain communications
requires a constellation.
• There is a highly complex handover
requires between satellites
• Complex satellites with low life but can be
relatively small

Lecture 9 2006 37

Lecture 9 2006 38

19
 Iridium – in service?

Lecture 9 2006 39

Inter Satellite Link

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

small cells
(spotbeams)

base station
or gateway
footprint

Public
Cellular
ISDN Telephone
Network
System

User data

Lecture 9 2006 40

20
 Summary

• Satellite Communications allows wide

areas of the globe to be provided with low
infrastructure cost
• Three main types of orbit: geostationary,
low earth and intermediate
In principle elliptic orbits may also be used

Lecture 9 2006 41

Summary (cont)
• Geostationary has major advantages in
relatively low complexity, ‘stationary
satellites’
• BUT the orbit is high above the earth-
delay time issues, needs gain in both
ground and satellite (note some low rate rate
services can be provided with low gain ground stations)

Lecture 9 2006 42

21
 Summary(cont)
• Both LEO and MEO (ICO) orbits reduce
delay problem substantially and range loss
• BUT need complex systems and satellites
• So far two LEO constellations have been
proven technically but financially not
successful

Lecture 9 2006 43

Lecture 9 2006 44

22