Chapter 1

Introduction
 OVERVIEW OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS
❖ Transmission Losses

The EIRP may be thought of as the power input to one end of the transmission link, and the problem is to find
the power received at the other end. Losses will occur along the way, some of which are constant. Other losses
can only be estimated from statistical data, and some of these are dependent on weather conditions, especially on
rainfall

1) Free-space transmission loss

As a first step in the loss calculations, the power loss resulting from the spreading of the signal in space must be
determined. This calculation is similar for the uplink and the downlink of a satellite circuit

If an isotropic antenna radiates a power PT, the beam PT

illum = W/m2
power will spread as a sphere in which the antenna is the 4r 2
center. The power by surface area unit (illumination level) the power flux density

at a distance r from the transmission point will follow the GT PT

 = illum  GT =
next equation 4r 2
 OVERVIEW OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS
the received power
r is the distance between the transmit and receive antennas
PR =   Ae
GR is the isotropic power gain of the receiving antenna
GT PT  GR
2
=
4r 2 4
  
2

= EIRP. GR .   4r 
2

 4r  FSL = 10 log 
  
 4r 
2

 4rf 
2
PR (dBW) = EIRP [dBW] + GR (dB)-10 log 
   = 10 log 
 c 
= 20 log r + 20 log f + 92.4

PR (dBW) = EIRP [dBW] + GR (dB)-FSL (dB)

OVERVIEW OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS
 OVERVIEW OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS
2) Feeder losses

Losses will occur in the connection between the receive antenna and the receiver proper. Such losses
will occur in the connecting waveguides, filters, and couplers. These will be denoted by RFL for receiver
feeder losses.

3) Antenna misalignment losses

There are two possible sources of off-axis loss as shown in Fig

1) The first one is at the satellite. The off-axis loss at the

satellite is taken into account by designing the link for operation
on the actual satellite antenna contour.
2) The other one is at the earth station. The off-axis loss at the
earth station is referred to as the antenna pointing loss.

Antenna pointing losses are usually only a few tenths of a decibel;

a typical value of antenna misalignment loss (AML) is 0.5 dB.
 OVERVIEW OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS
4) Fixed atmospheric and ionospheric losses
The signal traveling from the earth station to the
satellite must pass through earth’s atmosphere, including
the ionosphere. The losses occur in earth’s atmosphere as
a result of energy absorption by atmospheric gasses such
as oxygen O2 and water vapor H2O. The atmospheric
loss depends on:
1. Frequency
2. Elevation angle
3. Altitude above the sea level
4. Absolute humidity.

Two absorption peaks can be noticed:

1) at f=22.3 GHz resulting from the resonance absorption in water vapor (H2O).
2) at f=60 GHz resulting from resonance absorption in Oxygen (O2).
 OVERVIEW OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS
At frequencies well clear of these peaks, the absorption is quite low. At f<10 GHz, the loss may be
neglected. The importance of the atmospheric loss increases if f>10 GHz; specially at low elevation
angles. The data in previous Fig for an elevation angle of 90o; i.e., vertical incidence. Let AA90 (dB)
denote the value of the absorption loss at 90o, the atmospheric absorption loss for an elevation angle 
down to 10o is given by
AA = AA90 cosec
The ionosphere is the upper region of earth’s atmosphere, which has been ionized by solar radiation. The
free electrons are not uniformly distributed but form in layers. Clouds of electrons may travel through
ionosphere. On effect of ionosphere is to produce a rotation of polarization of the signal. This is known as
Faraday rotation. The depolarization loss due to ionosphere is given by
PL = 20 log(cos F ) where F is the Faraday rotation angle

5) Effects of rain
❑ The most serious atmospheric effect is the effect of rain. Rainfall results in attenuation of radio waves by
scattering, and by absorption of energy from the wave. Rain attenuation increases with increasing frequency,
and is worse at Ku band than at C band
❑ Extra power should be transmitted in order to overcome the rain attenuation
❑ Rain attenuation data are usually available in the forms of curves or tables showing the fraction of time that a
given attenuation is exceeded, or equivalently, the probability that a given attenuation will be exceeded
 OVERVIEW OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS
❖ The link power budget equation
FSL = free-space spreading loss, dB
PR (dBW) = EIRP [dBW] + G R (dB)-Losses (dB)
RFL = receiver feeder loss, dB
AML = antenna misalignment loss, dB
Losses (dB) = FSL + RFL + AML + AA + PL AA = atmospheric absorption loss, dB
PL = polarization mismatch loss, dB
 OVERVIEW OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS
❖ Satellite Services
1) Direct broadcast satellite services

❑ The TV broadcasting constitutes from 1/4 to 1/3 of the

domestic satellite utilization. The service is one-way,
consisting of a single, relatively expensive transmitting
control station, and a large number of relatively
inexpensive receive only stations. The satellite video
signals are transmitted directly from very powerful
transponders to very inexpensive home receivers as in Fig.
❑ Satellite direct broadcast might also be used for services
other than television, for example, audio programming and
data services
 OVERVIEW OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS
2) Communication satellite services

Satellite is used for point-to-point trunks between telephone exchange offices in public telephone network. It is
economical for distances in excess of 1000 miles depending on the size of the trunk group. This is due to the
fact that satellite trunk costs are distance-insensitive.

3) The mobile satellite services (MSAT)

Mobile radio trunking service (MRTS)
Interconnected mobile radio service (IMRS)
Mobile data service (MDS)

4) VSAT private business networks

very small aperture terminals (VSATs)
 Chapter 2
SATELLITE ORBITS
AND LAUNCHING
 SATELLITE ORBITS AND LAUNCHING
The satellite orbit is the trajectory in space followed
by the satellite in equilibrium between two opposite
forces. A satellite moving in a direction has a forward
velocity sufficient to create an outward thrust
(centrifugal force) equal to the gravitational pull
of the earth as displayed in Fig 2.1

The orbit must satisfy the following:

1) The plane of the orbit must pass through the
center of the earth to be orbited.
2) The earth must be at the center of any orbit.

Fig. 2.1: Balances of forces in earth-centered orbits.

 SATELLITE ORBITS AND LAUNCHING
❑ Kepler’s Laws

In the early 17th century, Kepler (1571-1630) discovered, from careful observations for long times, some
important properties of planetary motion that have come to be called Kepler’s laws.
The more massive of the two bodies is referred to as the primary; the other is called the secondary or
satellite.
Kepler’s first law (1602)
Kepler’s first law states that:
➢ The planets move in a plane. Refer to Fig .2.2
➢ The orbits around the sun are ellipses with the sun at one focal point. See Fig.2.2

An ellipse has two focal points shown as f1 and f2 in Fig. 2.3. The semi major axis is denoted by a, and the
semi minor axis by b.
 SATELLITE ORBITS AND LAUNCHING

Fig. 2.2: The illustration of Kepler’s laws. Fig. 2.3: Parameters of the elliptical orbits.
 SATELLITE ORBITS AND LAUNCHING
Kepler’s second law (1605)
Kepler’s first law states that:
➢ The line between the sun and a planet sweeps out equal areas in equal intervals of time. Refer to Fig. 2.2.
Consequently, for equal time intervals the satellite will sweep out equal areas in its orbital plane.

Kepler’s third law (1618)

Kepler’s third law states that:
➢ The square of the periodic time of orbit is proportional to the cube of the mean distance between the two bodies.

The mean distance is equal to the semi major axis a. For artificial satellites orbiting the earth, Kepler’s third law
can be written in the form

a =
3

n2
n is the mean motion of the satellite in radians per second
 is the earth’s geocentric gravitational parameter. With a in meters, the gravitational parameter is
 = 3.99  1014 m3/s2
 SATELLITE ORBITS AND LAUNCHING
❖ The Geometry of Elliptical and Circular Orbits

The geometry of an elliptical satellite orbit is

displayed in Fig. 2.3. The ellipse is defined by two
parameters: the semi-major and semi-minor axes a
and b. The deviation of the ellipse from the circular
shape can be characterized by means of eccentricity,
e, or flattening f

2
e = 1− b
0  e 1
a2
Fig. 2.3: Parameters of the elliptical
f = ( a − b) / a This implies that orbits.

e = 1 − (1 − f ) 2
 SATELLITE ORBITS AND LAUNCHING
❑ The shape of the ellipse can then be described by the numerical eccentricity e <1. With this parameter, the
distance of the focal points from the ellipse center can be expressed as

f1o = f 2 o = e.a
❑ The distance of the satellite from the earth’s center is the radius r. The point of the orbit where r is the
smallest is called perigee (the nearest point) with

r = rp = a(1 − e)
❑ The point with largest r is denoted as apogee (the farthest point) with

r = ra = a(1 + e)
❑ From Kepler’s second law, we can deduce that a satellite moves quickly near perigee and slowly near apogee.
This implies that the satellite takes longer to travel a given distance when it is further away from the earth.
This property is very useful in determining or controlling the length of time a satellite can be seen from
particular geographic regions of the earth
 SATELLITE ORBITS AND LAUNCHING
According to Fig, we can set up the following relations

ra + rp ra − rp
a= & e=
2 ra + rp

❑ The satellite altitude h above the earth’s surface is given by

h = r − Re Re the radius of the earth

❖ the orbit altitude at apogee is ❖ the orbit altitude at perigee is

ha = ra − Re h p = rp − Re
❑ Actually, the earth is not an ideal sphere but exhibits some flattening at the poles. In the following, we will use
Re=6370 km to represent the mean equatorial radius.
❑ A circular satellite orbit is a special case of an elliptical orbit with zero eccentricity, e=0. Thus, we have

a = b = r = ra = rp ➢ The earth is at the center of the circular orbit, and the satellite altitude is constant.
 SATELLITE ORBITS AND LAUNCHING
❑ The Satellite Velocity and Orbital Period
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) extended the work of Kepler and in the year 1667 discovered the law of gravity.
This law states that two bodies with masses m and M at a distance r attract each other with the gravitational
force FG that is given by

mM m
Fg = G 2 =  2
r r
G=6.67x10-11 Nm2/kg2 the universal gravitation constant
=GM=3.99x1014 m3/s2 the gravitational parameter

❖ The potential energy of a mass m at a distance r is given by


E p = −m
r
❖ The kinetic energy of a mass m moving with a speed v is given by
1 2
Ek = mv
2
 SATELLITE ORBITS AND LAUNCHING
❑ Now, we are going to deduce a relation between the satellite velocity, v, and its distance from the center of the
earth, r. The total energy of the mass m can be expressed as the sum of the potential and kinetic energies.

The total mechanical energy ET is the sum of Ep and Ek

 
E = E p + Ek = m 1 v 2 − 
T 2 r

Let E denote the specific mechanical energy, i.e., the total energy per unit mass. We have
ET  v 2  
E= = − 
m  2 r

❑ E remains constant along the trajectory since there is neither generation nor loss of energy. The major semi-
axis a of the ellipse is related to the specific mechanical energy E as
  2  
a=− E=− E= v − =−
2E 2a 2 r 2a
2 1
❑ The velocity v of a satellite in an elliptical orbit v =  − 
r a
 SATELLITE ORBITS AND LAUNCHING
The orbital period T of a satellite in an elliptical orbit is given by
2r a3
T= = 2
❑ A special case is a circular orbit when a=b=r and e=0 v 
 r3
v= T = 2
r 
❑ For an orbit, the atmospheric drag must be negligible, and this requires the satellite to be at a height greater
than about 600 km.

❑ The time to complete one orbit depends on: ❑ The choice of an orbit is of a fundamental

▪ The mass of the vehicle (as compared to that of the earth), importance as it determines:

▪ The vehicle's velocity (which is dependent on the initial ▪ The transmission pass loss,

thrust supplied by the rocket engines and the mass of the ▪ The delay time,

payload), ▪ The earth coverage area, and

▪ The final orbital altitude. ▪ The time period the satellite is visible
from any given area.
 SATELLITE ORBITS AND LAUNCHING
Example
Consider a satellite that travels in a circular orbit for which the period is 1-day. Calculate the following:
a- The radius for the orbit.
b- The orbital velocity in km/h.
c- Prove that a satellite at that altitude completes its orbital period in 24 hours.
d- The satellite altitude in km.
SATELLITE ORBITS AND LAUNCHING