Link Budget Example

 Hughes Digital Satellite System (DSS)

 Brandname is “DirecTV”
 More than 220 TV channels
 Two broadcast centers
 Castle Rock, Colorado & Los Angeles, California
» Baseband TV video signals are sampled, digitized, & compressed
using MPEG (Motion Pictures Experts Group) standard
 MPEG removes redundant image data within single frame and between
frames
 Data rate for one non-HD TV channel is ~3-6 Mbps depending on
amount of motion in video, HDTV is ~8-15 Mbps
» Broadcast all digital video data on 6 GHz carrier “uplink” to
geostationary satellite transponders  QPSK Modulation

ECE 4710: Lecture #41 1

 DirecTV Link Budget
 Geostationary Satellite Transponders
 Altitude = 22,242 miles above Earth
 Located directly above equator at various longitudes
» 3 satellites @ 101° W longitude
 DirecTV 1-R  16 transponders @ 200 W power
 Core programming (ABC, NBC, CNN, TNN, MSNBC, etc.)
 DBS-2 & DBS-3  16 transponders @ 240 W power
 Local broadcast stations
» 1 satellite @ 110° W longitude w/ 3 transponders @ 240 W
 Local broadcast + Ethnic programming
» 1 satellite @ 119° W longitude w/ 11 transponders @ 200 W
 Local + Ethnic + HDTV

ECE 4710: Lecture #41 2

DirecTV Link Budget

6 GHz Uplink

12 GHz Downlink

ECE 4710: Lecture #41 3

 Uplink / Downlink
6 GHz
Uplink

12 GHz
Downlink

ECE 4710: Lecture #41 4

 DirecTV Link Budget
 Satellite Transponder Processing
 Filter + Amplify incoming uplink signal
 Translate incoming uplink frequency to Tx signal downlink
frequency
» Shift ~6 GHz uplink signal to ~12 GHz  Up Conversion
 Filter + High Power Tx Amplifier (200-240 W)
 Each transponder frequency has 24 MHz RF BW
 Adjacent frequencies separated by 4 MHz guard BW
» 16 transponders on DirecTV 1-R @ 101° WL  16  24 MHz + 16 
4 MHz = 448 MHz total BW
» 12.2 – 12.7 GHz satellite Tx frequency range for DirecTV 1-R
satellite

ECE 4710: Lecture #41 5

 DirecTV Transponder
Up Converter
6 GHz 12 GHz

PTx  200  240 W  core satellite PTx  200 W or 23 dBW

G AT  25  29 dB  varies spatially throughout U.S.
EIRP  PTx G AT  48  52 dBW  51 dBW for Columbia, MO

ECE 4710: Lecture #41 6

 DirecTV Link Budget
 Distance from satellite to Rx depends on lat/long
 Slant range using law of cosines
d ( R  h) 2  R 2  2 R ( R  h) cos   slant range

R = Earth Radius = 3963 mi or 6378 km

h = Satellite Height = 22,242 mi or 35,795 km
Earth
R h Satellite


R d
  cos 1[cos cos  ] where   Rx latitude &
  Sat Long - Rx Long

ECE 4710: Lecture #41 7

 DirecTV Link Budget
 Columbia, MO  38.9° N , 92.3° W
 For core DirecTV satellite @ 101° W Long
  cos 1[cos 38.9 cos(101  92.3)]  39.7

d ( R  h) 2  R 2  2 R ( R  h) cos 
 (6378  35,795) 2  (6,378) 2  2(6378) (6378  35,795) cos 39.7
 37,387 km ( 23,298 miles )

 Elevation
 1 R (E )
Angle 1  1 6378 
E  tan 1     tan     44
 tan  ( R  h) sin    tan 39.7 (6378  35795) sin 39.7 

ECE 4710: Lecture #41 8

 DirecTV Link Budget
 Columbia, MO
 Azimuth Angle (A )
 tan    tan 38.9 
A   cos 1      cos 1      166
 tan    tan 39.7 
A  166 CCW from 0 N or 360 - 166  194 CW from 0 N  SSW

 Rx Antenna Gain
 DirecTV standard
7A 718
 (0inch
.46 / 2(0.46
)2 m) diameter satellite dish
G AR    2003 or 33 dB

2
(3 10 / 12.45 10 )
8 9 2

12.2 – 12.7 GHz satellite Tx frequency range for DirecTV 1-R

satellite  12.45 GHz is half-way point for f

ECE 4710: Lecture #41 9

 DirectTV Antenna Temp
 For Elevation Angle E = 44° and f ~ 12 GHz

Ta ~ 20° K

ECE 4710: Lecture #41 10

 DirecTV Home Rx
Antenna
G1 = 40 dB & F1 = 0.6 dB TV IF Rx

Low Noise RG6/U Cable IF

RF Amp FIlter
f c  12.5 L = 8 dB / 100ft
GHz Low Noise
@ fIF = F3 =
Block IF

˜
950 – 1450 MHz AMP 10 dB
DownConverter

Demod /
Detector

Eb C
BER  
No N

ECE 4710: Lecture #41 11

 DirectTV Home Rx
 Rx System Noise Figure & Temperature
 Assume 100 ft worst-case cable length so L2 = F2 = 8 dB
F1  100.6 /10  1.15 G1  10 40 /10  10 4
1
F2  10  6.3 G2  8 /10  0.16
8 / 10

10
F3  1010 / 10
 10
F2  1 F3  1 6.3  1 10  1
Fs  F1    1.15    1.16 !!
G1 G1 G2 10 4
10  0.16
4

 Fs dominated by first stage  cable loss does NOT affect

overall Rx system noise figure
ECE 4710: Lecture #41 12
 DirectTV Home Rx
 Rx System Noise Figure & Temperature
Fs  1.16  Tes  ( Fs  1) T0  (1.16  1) 290  46 K
Tsys  Ta  Tes  20  46  66 K

 RF/IF Signal
 Each transponder frequency has QPSK modulated signal
with data rate R = 40 Mbps and signal BW = 24 MHz
» Spectral efficiency  = 40 / 24 = 1.66 bps/Hz  corresponds to RC
filtered QPSK with r = 0.20
» Each TV channel has data rate of 3-6 Mbps  8-10 non-HD
channels on single transponder frequency

ECE 4710: Lecture #41 13

 DirectTV Link Budget
 Parameters from previous analysis
 For Columbia, MO specifically
Elevation Angle E  44 Azimuth Angle  A  194 CW from 0 N  SSW

EIRP  PTx G AT  51 dBW  125,892

d  37,387 km ( 23,298 miles )

 System parameters
f  12.5 GHz    0.024 m
G AR  2003 or 33 dB Tsys  Ta  Tes  66 K
B  24 MHz R  40 Mbps
  1.66  QPSK with r  0.20

ECE 4710: Lecture #41 14

 DirectTV Link Budget
 Link Budget Performance
 C  PTx G AT G AR  125,892  (2003)  (0.024) 2
2

  
  k B Tsys  4 d  1.38 10  23 (24 10 6 ) 66 (4  37,387  10 3 ) 2
2
N
C
   30.1 or 14.8 dB
N
Eb  C  1  1 
    30.1   18 or 12.6 dB
No  N    1.667 
 E 
 
BER  Q 2 b   Q 2(18)  Q(6)  1 10 9
N0 

@ R  40 Mbps & BER  1 10-9
1
 1 bit error occurs every seconds  25 seconds
R  BER

ECE 4710: Lecture #41 15