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Basics of Satellite Communication

Modes of communication
Satellite communication Terrestrial communication Telephone lines VHF/UHF radio links Optical fiber Microwave Links Submarine Cables

Basic Data Communication Circuit

DTE

DCE
Transmission Channel

DCE

DTE

DTE - Computer terminals,Routers,etc. DCE - Satellite modems,Leased line modems,Tel. Modems Transmission Channel - Satellite link,Leased line,Tel. line

Terrestrial communication using modems


CARRIER WAVE
DIGITAL SIGNAL

MODEM

ANALOG SIGNAL MODULATED SIGNAL

TELEPHONE WIRES MODEM PC MODEM PC

Communication media
COPPER CABLE

SATELLITE LINK TELEPHONE WIRES

FIBER OPTIC LINK MICROWAVE LINK

Advantage of satellite communication


DE LHI CA LCUT T A

B OM B AY

VSAT equipment

HY DE RA B A D

B A NGA L ORE M A DRA S

VSAT equipment

DE LHI

CA LCUT T A

B OM B AY

Modem

HY DE RA B A D

Modem

B A NGA L ORE M A DRA S

Reliability Cost in comparison to distance the signal travel Ease of Installation Can be installed anywhere on the globe

Microwave Communication

Microwave communication
Microwave Microwave Radio
An electromagnetic wave that has a wavelength of about .3 cm to 3mtrs, thus covering wavelengths from VHF to EHF Used by line-of-sight carrier systems to carry large quantities of voice and data signals.It is affected adversely by atmospheric conditions and solid objects. Most common carrier microwave radio link systems carry analog signals, but there are few systems that carry digital signal Consists of an uplink transmitter signal to the satellite and downlink retransmitted signal to receiving stations on Earth

Satellite Radio Link

Microwave communication

Microwave communication requires line of sight Area covered is limited by height and distance of microwave transmitters A satellite is a microwave repeater in Geo synchronous orbit above the earth

Satellite Coverage Area

Three geo synchronous satellites can be used for full earth coverage. The transmission of a signal up to the satellite and back down is called a hop.Transmission delay for one hop is between 240msec. and 270msec.

Satellite Coverage Area

A geo synchronous satellite can transmit to approximately 42% of the earths surface. North and South poles cannot receive signals from a geo synchronous satellite. The area covered by a single satellite antenna is called a footprint.

Satellite Footprint

Satellite orbits
EQUATORIAL POLAR INCLINED

Equatorial orbit
Satellites in equatorial orbits circle the earth above the equator (zero degrees latitude) Satellites can be at any height above the earths surface
Sites at the extreme poles do not receive equatorial satellites signal: therefore this orbit is not used for those locations

Polar orbit
Satellites in polar orbits circle the earth above the north and south poles. Any height above the earths surface
Are also called 90 inclined orbits
o

Inclined orbits
Satellites in inclined orbits circle the earth at a certain angle from the equator. Can be at any height above the earths surface. Due to gravitational pull and the earths rotation, none of the satellites in the above orbits are in constant view from a single point on the earths surface. Tracking antennas can be used to follow the path of satellites in any of these orbits.

Geosynchronous Orbit
The altitude of the satellite determines how long it takes for the satellite to circle the earth. The orbit at the height of 22,300 miles is special.In that the satellite takes exactly 24 hours to travel around the earth- the earths rotation time. If its orbit is over the equator and it travels in the same direction as the earth, then it appears to hang stationary over one point on the earth.

Geosynchronous Orbit
This orbit is called a geo synchronous orbit.
A satellite in the geo synchronous orbit is geo stationery.The apparently stationery satellite is called a geo synchronous satellite. Communication satellites utilize geo synchronous orbits because they allow continuous communications from one point to the next, without the earth antennas needing tracking equipment.

Satellite Drift

Center Beam Satellite Drift

Center Beam Satellite Drift

Satellite position changes due to solar and lunar gravitational pull.

Satellite owner needs to monitor position of satellite at all times and correct for satellite drift.

Polarization
Polarization is the orientation of EM waves in space

Satellites operate in two polarizations


Linear- Co-pol,Cross-pol Circular- Right hand, Left hand

Polarization
LINEAR

CIRCULAR

Polarization is the orientation of an RF signal in space.There are two types of polarization: Linear or Circular Every antenna site will need to be set to the appropriate polarization angle to receive the correct signal.

Why Polarization ?
To increase the channel capacity Two signals can be transmitted at the same frequency in two different polarizations

Satellite Frequency Bands


S-BAND C-BAND 2 6/4 G Hz G Hz

Ku-BAND 14/11 G Hz
Ka-BAND 30/20 G Hz

Radio Frequency Bands


3 Hz 30 Hz 300 Hz 3 kHz 30 kHz 300 kHz 3 MHz 30 MHz 300 MHz 100

ELF 101
SLF
102

ULF 103 VLF


104

Human Hearing (20 Hz to 20 kHz)

LF
MF HF VHF

105 106 107 108 109

AM Band (535 to 1605 kHz)

FM Band (88 to 108 MHz) Cellular Phones (800 MHz) C-Band Ku-Band

3 GHz UHF

30 GHz SHF 1010 300 GHz

EHF 1011

VSAT Network Components


EARTH STATION SATELLITE TRANSPONDER SPACE LINK NETWORK CONTROL CENTRE

Remote Earth Station


Communication equipments on earth Base band equipments IF equipments RF electronics Antenna

Remote Earth Station

Remote Earth Station

Remote Earth Station


Radio/Feed horn/LNA

Remote Earth Station


Antenna -

Remote Earth Station


There are three main styles of antenna design based on the type of feed structure.
1. Gregorian antennas
This style is common in larger antennas since the extra degree of design freedom allows high efficiency for transmit/receive antennas, and it provides convenient access to the feeds at the back of the antenna. The side lobe performance is affected to some extent by blockage caused by the sub reflector, especially for small antennas. The design also costs more.

Remote Earth Station


2. PRIME FOCUS ANTENNA This design is most common for receive-only functions such as television receive stations. They are low cost and can be optimized for high efficiency in the receive Band. Usually the LNA is mounted at the focal point to eliminate losses. For transmit applications, a length of coaxial cable is required to reach the transmit flange. The side lobe performance of these antennas is usually better than the Gregorian design for small diameters because of the reduced sub reflector blockage. However, four port feeds become impractical with this configuration.

Remote Earth Station


3.OFFSET FEED ANTENNA This design is relatively new. Because the reflector is not symmetrical, it is more difficult and expensive to make and is not economical for antennas larger than 3.8 m in diameter. The primary advantage of this design is the excellent side lobe performance perhaps 10 dB lower than other designs because there is no blockage by a sub-reflector or feed horn. The requirement to place satellites closer together in orbit and the development of low-cost earth station hardware for light traffic applications (VSAT) has encouraged development of this design. Usually, a compact transmit/receive head is mounted at the focal point.

Remote Earth Station

Remote Earth Station


IFL Cable The Inter Facility Link Cable is a co-axial cable & plays the following role1. It carries the DC voltage from RFM/IF module to radio for its operation. 2. Carries the received L-Band signal from radio to RFM/IF Module. 3. Carries the transmit signal(185MHz) from RFM/IF Module to radio. The N-type male connectors are used at both the ends of IFL cable

Remote Earth Station

Remote Earth Station -BUC

Earth Station - Antenna pointing

Earth Station - Antenna pointing


We use the Spectrum analyzer to point the antenna towards satellite so that the antenna can perfectly receive & transmit the signal from/to satellite

Satellite
Antenna Transponder Repeater equipment Frequency converters Amplifiers

Satellite Block Diagram


SOLAR PANELS

STORAGE BATTERIES

POWER CONDITIONER

COMMAND AND TELEMETRY SUBSYSTEM

TRANSPONDERS ANTENNA SUBSYSTEM ANTENNAS

POSITION CONTROL SUBSYSTEM

Transponder - the frequency conversion and amplification part of the satellite

Satellite Frequencies and Transponders

Uplink - The signal from the earth antenna to the satellite. Downlink - The signal from the satellite to the earth station

Satellite Frequencies and Transponders


RECEIVE SIGNAL (UPLINK) RECEIVER (LNA)
FREQUENCY CONVERTER TRANSMITTER TRANSMIT SIGNAL (DOWNLINK) (HPA)

TRANSPONDER

Low Noise Amplifier(LNA)

-amplifies the uplink signal Frequency Converter -converts the incoming signal to the downlink frequency.(The uplink and downlink signals must differ to avoid conflicts with each other. High Power Amplifier(HPA) -Amplifies the signal to be rebroadcast.

Hub Components
Antenna
RF equipment System IF distribution Network equipment System baseband equipment Network management software Host front end - CPU PABX

Adjacent Satellite System Interference


OPERATING SATELLITE

DOWNLINK INTERFERENCE UPLINK INTERFERENCE

DOWNLINK INTERFERENCE
UPLINK INTERFERENCE

OPERATING EARTH STATION

Satellite Channel Access Techniques


FDMA TDMA FDMA/TDMA CDMA

Bandwidth Allocation Methods


One user is assigned the entire available bandwidth for an infinite amount of time.
Time

User 5 User 4

User 3
User 2 User 1

Time

Allocates a finite amount of bandwidth to one user for an infinite amount of time.

Bandwidth Allocation Methods


Allocates the entire available bandwidth to one user for a finite amount of time.
Time

Time

Allocates a small amount of bandwidth to one user for a short amount of time, allowing many users to share the same bandwidth.

Example of FDMA
Uplink Frequencies

SPECTRUM ANALYZER SCREEN


A B C D

FREQUENCY

Example of TDMA
Uplink Frequencies t4 t3

t5 t6
B

t2 t1
C

ISBN HUB

SPECTRUM ANALYZER SCREEN

Frequency

Block Diagram Of An Earth Station


RF
U/C
PA

IF
MOD

BB
MUX

TX Users

~ ~
LNA

~
DEMOD

D/C

DEMUX

RX Users

~ ~
Frequency Conversion

~
Modem Baseband equipment

The base band equipment provides interfaces that allow space link/user protocol conversion. The IF subsystem performs modulation/demodulation The RF subsystem performs IF/RF conversion and signal amplification.

Bandwidth allocation methods


Total Band and Total Time Shared Band, Total Time(FDMA) Total Band and Shared Time (TDMA) Shared Band and Shared Time (FDMA/TDMA)

FDMA
The Band is divided and each user is allotted with different frequency band Suitable for high density traffic and on-line systems

TDMA
Effective utilization of the same band in different time slots Suitable for low density and off line applications ( Data Communications)

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