Satellite Communication System (SCS)

A satellite that merely relays the uplink carrier as a downlink is then referred to as a relay satellite or repeater satellite A satellite that electronically operates on the received uplink to reformat it in some way prior to retransmission is called a processing satellite Also called as Transponder (Transmitter + Responder) p p
because it transmit the downlink info by responding the uplink info.

 In a Transmitting Station:
The baseband information signals (telephone, TV, telegraph, etc.) are brought in on cable or microwave link from the various sources baseband info are then multiplexed and modulated on to the Intermediate p Frequency (IF) carrier
Either as a single carrier or a multiple of contiguous sources

the entire set of station carrier is then translated to RF for power amplification and transmission d i i

At the Reception:
receiving at low noise wideband RF front end and followed by translator to IF the specific uplink carrier to be received are first separated, and then they are demodulated to baseband baseband is then demultiplexed and transferred to the destination

Communication Satellite Communication Satellite is basically an electronic communication package placed in a orbit around the Earth
prime objective is to aid information transmission from one point on or p j p near Earth to another

Ideally it would receive the uplink carrier, amplify it to the desired level, and retransmit in the downlink However, trying to receive and retransmit an amplified version of the same uplink waveform at the same satellite will cause h li k f h lli ill unwanted feedback or Ringaround from the downlink antenna back into the receiver
Hence, the satellite repeaters must involve some form of frequency translation prior to the power amplification
Thus the uplink and downlink frequencies are different p q

Orbiting Satellite: Th satellite encircles the Earth with an orbit The lli i l h E h ih bi
Orbit can be equatorial, polar or inclined Path of the orbit can be elliptical or circular

For a circular orbit, a satellite must achieve a velocity of

vs =

where, rE is the Earths radius (rE = 6378 Km), h is the orbit altitude, and g0 is the gravitational coefficient The time ts for an orbiting satellite to complete one revolution satisfies sts = 2, where s is the angular velocity Since, vs = (rE + h)s, we have
ts = 2 2 ( rE + h ) = ( rE + h )3/ 2 vs g0

g0 rE + h

 If a satellite orbits in a equatorial plane at exactly the same angular velocity as the Earth rotates, it will be appeared to be rotates fixed at a specific point in the sky when viewed from Earth
Synchronous or Geostationary Satellite

F synchronous orbit to occur, ts must equal to exactly one day For h bit t t lt tl d of 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds. This gives us, h = 35,784 Km It can drift due to the gravitational effects of moon and sun
Causing the orbit to become slightly inclined

Di d Disadvantage: t
Point on earth beyond 800 latitude are not visible Require multiple satellite to be spread in the orbit in order to provide the continuous coverage

Geostationary satellite system (GSS) requires simpler Earth stations

because no tracking is required or no handover takes place

Satellite Frequency Bands The frequencies used for SatCom should be selected from bands that are most favorable
i.e., in terms of power efficiencies, minimal propagation distortions, and reduced noise and interference effects

Use of frequencies has been separated into military and civilian

Fixed-point Broadcast Mobile Inter-satellite

The Satellite Channel

Power Flow: Pr=EIRP + Gr Lp EIRP Practically, Pr=EIRP + Gr Lp L (dBW) where, L=Lta + Lra + La and La= attenuation in atmosphere Lta= losses associated with transmitting antenna Lra= l losses associated with receiving antenna i t d ith i i t (dBW)
represent an idealized case i.e., no additional losses are considered

Polarization: An EM field also has a designated polarization

This is determined by the manner in which the EM field is excited at the antenna feeds prior to propagation

An additional Rx power loss will occur if the receiving antenna subsystem is not properly aligned with the received wave polarization
This is referred to as a polarization loss p and, should be included in the loss term La

The common polarization in satellite links are linear and circular

Antennas: The antenna converts electronic carrier signals to polarized EM fields, and vice-versa
A transmitting antenna is composed of a feed assembly that illuminates an aperture or reflecting surface, from which the EM field then radiates A receiving antenna has an aperture or surface focusing an incident radiation field to a collecting feed, producing an electronic signal proportional to the incident radiation

In satellite systems, the common antenna types are

linear dipole the helix the horn the antenna array, and the parabolic reflector h b li fl

 The parabolic reflector is the most common, giving a highly directional, di i l symmetric pattern i The dipole has a pattern that is hemispherical, and produces a propagating field polarized in the direction of the dipole ti fi ld l i d i th di ti f th di l Helix and horns are smaller antennas with reasonable directivity, but higher side-lobes than parabolic reflectors side lobes
A helix antenna produces a circularly polarized field, while A horn is generally used to produce linearly polarized fields

In case of Parabolic Dish:

The field to be transmitted is excited in the feed waveguide with the desired polarization and is then radiated to the reflector The feed may be located in front at the focus of the dish, or it may be fed from behind using a subreflector

Receiver Noise: A receiving antenna also collects other forms of EM energy that may be present y p In addition, noise can be generated directly within the electronics of the Rx immediately following the antenna The contributions from all theses sources of interference combine to define a total noise level for the receiving system

Noise Temperature: Th amount of Rx noise present is defined by a Rx noise The t fR i t i d fi d b R i temperature Teq Teq = Tb + (F-1)290 (F 1)290 where Tb is the background noise temperature accounting for contributions collected by the antenna and F is the noise figure of y g the Rx A noise source with a temperature Teq produces an effective noise p p spectrum level of N0 = kTeq watts/Hz The total noise power entering the Rx over a bandwidth BRF is Pn = kTeqBRF