sc-unit-3

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Subject: Satellite Communications

Prepared by
M.Galeeb M.Tech, (Ph.D)
Assistant Professor
Dept of ECE
Unit-3: Satellite Link Design SESHADRI RAO GUDLAVALLERU
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 Concept:1-Basic Transmission Theory

 Concept:2-System Noise Temperature & G/T Ratio
 Concept:3-Design of downlinks
 Concept:4-Uplink design
 Concept:5-Design of satellite links for specified C/N
 Concept:6-Satellite Link Design Procedure
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 The calculation of power received by an earth station from

a satellite is fundamental to the understanding of satellite
communication.
 Consider a transmitting source, in free space, radiating a
total power Pt watts uniformly in all directions.
 Such source is called isotropic.
 At a distance R meters from isotropic source, flux
density crossing the surface
 F= Pt / 4 πR2 (W/m2 )
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 For a transmitter with output Pt watts driving a

lossless antenna with gain Gt , the flux density at
distance R meters is
 F= PtGt /4 πR2 (W/m2 )
 The product PtGt is called effective isotropic radiated power

or EIRP, it describes the combination of transmitting
power & antenna gain in terms of an equivalent isotropic
source with power PtGtwatts.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 If we had an ideal receiving antenna with an aperture of A m2 , we

would collect power Pr watts given by
 Pr = F * Awatts
 A practical antenna with physical aperture area of A m2 will not

deliver power as given in above equation.
 Some of the energy incident on aperture is reflected away from the
antenna, some is absorbed by lossy components. The effective
aperture Ae is
 Ae = ηA A
 Where ηA aperture efficiency of the antenna.
 For parabolic reflector ηA = 50 to75%
 For Horn antennas ηA= 90%

ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 Thus the power received by real antenna with effective aperture area Ae
m2 is
Pr = PtGt Ae / 4 πR2 (watts)……..(A)

 A fundamental relation in antenna theory is gain & area of an

antenna are related by
 G = 4π Ae/ λ2
 Substituting above equation in equation (A) gives
 Pr = [PtGt Gr/ (4 πR / λ )2 ]watts……..(B)
 This expression is known as link equation & essential in calculation
of power received in any radio link.
 The term (4 πR / λ )2 is known as path loss Lp .
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 Equation B represents an idealized case, in which there are no

additional losses in the link.
 In practice, we need to take account of a more complex situation in
which we have losses in atmosphere due to attenuation by oxygen,
water vapor and rain, losses in the antennas at each end of the link.
 So equation B can be writtenas
 Pr = EIRP + Gr – Lp – L a-Lta– Lra dBW where
 La = attenuation in atmosphere
Lta = losses associated with transmitting antenna
Lra = losses associated with receiving antenna
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 The received power, Pr is commonly referred to as

carrier power, C.
 This is because most satellite links use either
frequency modulation for analog transmission or
phase modulatiaon for digital systems.
 In both of the modulation schemes, the amplitude of the
carrier is not changed when data are modulated onto the
carrier, so carrier power C is always equal to received
power Pr.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
Noise Temperature
 Noise temperature provides a way of determining how
much thermal noise is generated by active and passive
devices in the receiving system.
 At microwave frequencies, a black body with physical
temperature, Tp degrees kelvin, generate electrical noise
over a wide bandwidth.
 The noise power is given by
 Pn = k Tp B
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 Where
 k= Boltzmann’s constant= 1.38 * 10-23 J/K
 =-228.6 dBW/K/Hz
 Tp = Noise temperature of source in K
 B= noise bandwidth in which noise power is

measured, in Hz.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 System noise temperature Ts , is the noise temperature

of noise source at the input of noiseless receiver, which
gives same noise power as the original receiver, measured
at the output of receiver.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 The noisy devices in the receiver are replaced by

equivalent noiseless blocks with the same gain
and noise generators at the input to each block
such that the block produce same noise at its
output as the device it replaces.
 The total noise power at the output of the IF
amplifier of the receiver is given by
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 This equation can be written as

ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 The single source of noise shown in above figure

with noise temperature Ts generates the same
noise power Pn at its output
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 So the system noise temperature is

ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 Noise Figure
 Noise figure is used to specify the noise generated
within a device.
 The operational noise figure is
 NF = (S/N)in /(S/N)out
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 Noise Temperature
 Noise temperature is more useful in satellite
communication systems, it is best to convert noise
figure to noise temperature, T
 T = T0 (NF- 1)
 Where
 NF is a linear ratio, not in decibels
 T0 is the reference temperature (290 K)
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 The link equation can be rewritten in terms of

(C/N) at the earth stations
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 The design of any satellite communication is based on

two objectives: a)meeting a minimum C/N ratio for a
specified percentage of time, and b)carrying the
maximum revenue earning traffic at minimum cost.
 Any satellite link can be designed with very large
antennas to achieve high C/N ratios under all
conditions, but the cost will be high.
 The art of good system design is to reach the best
compromise of system parameters that meets the
specification at the lower cost.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 C/N ratio calculation is simplified by the use of

link budgets.
 A link budget is a tabular method for evaluating
the received power and noise power.
 Link budgets invariably use decibel units for
all quantities so that signal and noise powers
can be calculated by addition and
subtraction.
 Since it is usually impossible to design a satellite link at
the first attempt, link budgets make the task much
easier because, once a link budget has been
established, it is easy to change any of the parameters
and recalculate the result.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 The Uplink design is easier than the downlink, since

an accurately specified carrier power must be
presented at the satellite transponder and it is often
feasible to use much higher power transmitters at
earth stations than can be used on a satellite.
 The cost of transmitters tend to be high compared
with the cost of receiving equipment in satellite
communication system.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 Earth station transmitter power is set by the power

level required at the input to the transponder.
 Analysis of the uplink requires calculation of the

power level at the input to the transponder so that the
uplink C/N ratio can be found.
 The link equation is used to make this calculation.
 Let (C/N)up be the specified C/N ratio in the

transponder, measured in an noise bandwidth BnHz.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 At frequencies above 10 GHz, propagating

disturbances in the form of fading in rain causes the
received power level at the satellite to fall.
 This lowers the uplink C/N ratio in the transponder ,

which lowers the overall (C/N)o ratio in the earth
station receiver.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 When more than one C/N ratio is present in the link,

we can add the individual C/N ratios reciprocally to
obtain overall C/N ratio denoted as (C/N)o
 The overall (C/N)o ratio is
 (C/N)o = 1/ [1/(C/N)1 + 1/(C/N)2 +_ _ _ _ _]
 This sometimes referred as reciprocal C/N formula.
 The C/N values must be linear ratios, not decibel
values.
 (C/N)o = C/(N1 + N2 + _ _ _ _ _ _ _ )
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
 In dB units :
 (C/N)o=C dBW – 10log10 (N1 +N2 + _ _ _ _ _ ) dB
 C/N ratio at the receiver always yield (C/N)o , the
combination of transponder and earth station C/N
ratios.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
1. Determine the frequency band in which system must

operate. Comparative designs may be required to help
make the selection.
2. Determine the communications parameters of the
satellite. Estimate any values that are not known.
3. Determine the parameters of the transmitting and
receiving earth stations.
4. Start at the transmitting earth station. Establish an
uplink budget and a transponder noise power to find
(C/N)up in the transponder.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
5. Find the output power of the transponder based on

transponder gain or output backoff.
6. Establish a downlink power and noise budget for the
receiving earth station. Calculate (C/N)dn and
(C/N)o for a station at the edge of the coverage zone.
7. Calculate S/N or BER in the baseband channel. Find the
link margin.
8. Evaluate the result and compare with the specification
requirements. Change parameters of the system as required
to obtain acceptable (C/N)0 or S/N or BER values. This may
require several trial designs.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
9. Determine the propagation conditions under which the

link must operate. Calculate outage times for the
uplinks and downlinks.
10. Redesign the system by changing some parameters if the

link margins are inadequate. Check that all parameters
are reasonable, and that the design can be implemented
within the expected budget.
ENGINEERING COLLEGE
❖ What do you understand by the term ‘satellite link’? Explain

❖ Explain the basic contents in transmission theory
❖ Define G/ T ratio and give its importance in satellite
communication
❖ Derive the expression for link equation
❖ What is satellite link equation? Derive the expression for it
❖ Write the formula to find the overall C/N ratio in a satellite when
the uplink and downlink C/N ratio are given.
❖ Derive the expression for C/N ratio in a satellite link
❖ Write an example for system design

❖ Write an example for system design for KU band communication
link

sc-unit-3

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

sc-unit-3

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

sc-unit-3

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering

Subject: Satellite Communications

 Concept:1-Basic Transmission Theory

 The calculation of power received by an earth station from

 For a transmitter with output Pt watts driving a

 F= PtGt /4 πR2 (W/m2 )

 The product PtGt is called effective isotropic radiated power

 If we had an ideal receiving antenna with an aperture of A m2 , we

 A practical antenna with physical aperture area of A m2 will not

 For parabolic reflector ηA = 50 to75%

 For Horn antennas ηA= 90%

 A fundamental relation in antenna theory is gain & area of an

 Equation B represents an idealized case, in which there are no

 The received power, Pr is commonly referred to as

 B= noise bandwidth in which noise power is

 System noise temperature Ts , is the noise temperature

 The noisy devices in the receiver are replaced by

 This equation can be written as

 The single source of noise shown in above figure

 So the system noise temperature is

 The link equation can be rewritten in terms of

 The design of any satellite communication is based on

 C/N ratio calculation is simplified by the use of

 The Uplink design is easier than the downlink, since

 Earth station transmitter power is set by the power

 Analysis of the uplink requires calculation of the

 The link equation is used to make this calculation.

 Let (C/N)up be the specified C/N ratio in the

 At frequencies above 10 GHz, propagating

 This lowers the uplink C/N ratio in the transponder ,

 When more than one C/N ratio is present in the link,

1. Determine the frequency band in which system must

5. Find the output power of the transponder based on

9. Determine the propagation conditions under which the

10. Redesign the system by changing some parameters if the

❖ What do you understand by the term ‘satellite link’? Explain

❖ Write an example for system design

You might also like