Telecommunications-II

EEE 4203
 Satellite

• Operating principle
• Applications
• Bangabandhu-1 details
 What is Satellite?
• Generally, satellite is a moon, planet (earth) or machine
that orbits a planet or star. Usually, the word "satellite"
refers to a machine that is launched into space and moves
around Earth or another body in space. It depends on their
use.
• Sputnik 1 was the first satellite in space launched in 1957
by the Soviet Union.
• Some satellites remain over fixed spots on Earth, others fly
over both poles or can move from place to place as
needed.
• About 1,100 active satellites, both government and private.
Plus there are about 2,600 ones that no longer work.
(2014)
 Applications

• Thousands of artificial, or man-made, satellites orbit

Earth which are used for various purposes:

– Satellites are used for communications, such as beaming

TV signals and phone calls around the world.
– A group of more than 20 satellites make up the Global
Positioning System (GPS)
– Satellites take pictures of the planet that help
meteorologists predict weather and track hurricanes.
– Satellites take pictures of other planets, the sun, black
holes, dark matter or faraway galaxies. These pictures help
scientists better understand the solar system and universe.
 Frequency bands
• With the variety of satellite frequency bands that can be used,
designations have been developed so that they can be referred to easily.

• The higher frequency bands mean wider bandwidths, but are also more
susceptible to signal degradation due to ‘rain fade’ (the absorption of
radio signals by atmospheric rain, snow or ice).

• Because of satellites’ increased use, number and size, congestion has

become a serious issue in the lower frequency bands.
 Frequency range :

Uplink and downlink frequencies

 Frequency bands used in satellites
• L-band (1–2 GHz)
• Global Positioning System (GPS) carriers and also satellite mobile phones, such as Iridium; Inmarsat providing
communications at sea, land and air; WorldSpace satellite radio.
• S-band (2–4 GHz)
Weather radar, surface ship radar, and some communications satellites, especially those of NASA for
communication with ISS and Space Shuttle. In May 2009, Inmarsat and Solaris mobile (a joint venture between
Eutelsat and Astra) were awarded each a 2×15 MHz portion of the S-band by the European Commission.
• C-band (4–8 GHz)
• Primarily used for satellite communications, for full-time satellite TV networks or raw satellite feeds. Commonly
used in areas that are subject to tropical rainfall, since it is less susceptible to rainfade than Ku band (the original
Telstar satellite had a transponder operating in this band, used to relay the first live transatlantic TV signal in
1962).
• X-band (8–12 GHz)
• Primarily used by the military. Used in radar applications including continuous-wave, pulsed, single-polarisation,
dual- polarisation, synthetic aperture radar and phased arrays. X-band radar frequency sub-bands are used in
civil, military and government institutions for weather monitoring, air traffic control, maritime vessel traffic
control, defence tracking and vehicle speed detection for law enforcement.
• Ku-band (12–18 GHz)
• Used for satellite communications. In Europe, Ku-band downlink is used from 10.7 GHz to 12.75 GHz for direct
broadcast satellite services, such as Astra.
• Ka-band (26–40 GHz)
• Communications satellites, uplink in either the 27.5 GHz and 31 GHz bands, and high-resolution, close-range
targeting radars on military aircraft.
 Satellite launching method
• Satellites enter their orbits in the most energy efficient
ways possible.
• the amount of fuel required is kept to a minimum
– the fuel itself has to be transported until it is used.
– too much fuel increases the size of the launch rocket and
greatly increases the costs.
• These are the two main methods of placing satellites
geostationary orbit :
– Hohmann transfer principle.
– Direct launching
• Naturally it would be possible to place a satellite directly
into geostationary orbit, but this would take more
energy and would not be feasible.
 Satellite launching method
Hohmann transfer principle.
1. satellite is placed into a low earth
orbit with an altitude of around 180
miles.
2. in the correct position in this orbit,
the rockets are fired to put the
satellite into an elliptical orbit with
the apogee at the low earth orbit and
the perigee at the geostationary orbit
as shown.
3. when the satellite reaches the final
altitude the rocket or booster is again
fired to retain it in the geostationary
orbit with the correct velocity.
 Launching methods-direct

• Direct launching
– launch vehicles like Arianes are used and the satellite is
launched directly into the elliptical transfer orbit.
– when the satellite is at the required altitude the rockets
are fired to transfer it into the required orbit with the
correct velocity.
 Where are satellites placed

• When a satellite is launched, it is placed into an orbit

designed to avoid collisions with other satellites. But orbits
can change over time and the chances of a crash increase as
more and more satellites are launched into space (2009,
Rassia and US).
• Orbits
– Communications satellites relay signals from a fixed spot on the
equator, about 22,000 miles up.
– GPS satellites are at 12,400 miles, high enough to be accessible to
large swaths of the Earth.
– The International Space Station is only about 260 miles high, and
very few satellites are lower than that.
 Satellite orbits
• The altitudes at which satellites can orbit the earth are split into three
categories:
– Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
– Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)
– GEO
– High Earth Orbit (HEO)
• Satellites can orbit around the equator or the poles
– Equatorial Orbit
– Polar Orbit
• When a satellite's orbit matches the rotation of the earth it seems to be
static and called Geostationary or geosynchronous orbit.
 Satellite orbits
Orbit Distance Miles Km 1-way
Delay

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) 100-500 160 - 1,400 50 ms

Medium Earth Orbit 6,000 - 12,000 10 -15,000 100 ms

(MEO)

Geostationary Earth ~22,300 36,000 250 ms

Orbit (GEO)
High Earth Orbit Above 22,300 Faster than 36,000 300 ms or more
(HEO)
 Orbits
• LOW EARTH ORBIT (LEO)
– Typical Uses: Satellite phone, Military, Observation

– Satellites in low earth orbit (LEO) satellites complete one orbit roughly every 90 minutes at a
height of between 100 and 500 miles above the earth's surface. This means that they are fast
moving ( >17,000mph) and sophisticated ground equipment must be used to track the
satellite. This makes for expensive antennas that must track the satellite and lock to the signal
while moving.
– Satellites in this orbital range also have a very small 'footprint'--that is, the surface of the earth
that can be covered by the signal broadcast from the satellite is small.

• MEDIUM EARTH ORBIT (MEO)

– Typical Uses: Weather Satellites, Observation, spy satellites
– Most of the satellites in medium earth orbit circle the earth at approximately 6,000 to 12,000
miles above the earth in an elliptical orbit around the poles of the earth.
– Spy satellites typically use medium earth, polar orbits to cover as much of the earth's surface
as possible from one satellite.
 GEO
• Geostationary orbit
A satellite on a geostationary or geosynchronous orbit stays in
the same spot relative to Earth. It flies at an altitude of about
35,790 km, orbiting with the planet in the same direction. This
is why to people on the ground, it looks like the satellite is
stationary.
There are many geostationary satellites located over the
Equator, which causes congestion of the area. To prevent
signal interference, precise positioning of each satellite is
ensured prior to launching.
Geosynchronous satellites are often used to monitor weather
events or transmit television and communications signals.
 Orbits
• POLAR ORBIT
– A satellite in this orbit flies over the earth from pole to pole.
– LEO or MEO
– Many of the pictures of the earth's surface such as Google Earth come
from satellites in these polar orbits.
– Elliptical in shape

• ELLIPTICAL
– An elliptical orbit is an oval shaped orbit
– An elliptical orbit has two critical distances called apogee and perigee.
• Perigee is when an orbital object is closest to the earth. Apogee is when it is
farthest away.
Elliptical orbit satellites cover the polar regions where the geostationary satellites
cannot reach.
 Earth Stations
• The earth segment of satellite communication system mainly consists
of two earth stations –
– transmitting earth station and
– receiving earth station.
• Transmitting earth station transmits the information signals to satellite.
Whereas, the receiving earth station receives the information signals
from satellite. Sometimes, the same earth station can be used for both
transmitting and receiving purposes.
• In general, earth stations receive the baseband signals (voice signals
and video signals) either in analog form or digital form.
– Initially, FM modulation was used for transmitting both voice and video signals,
which are in analog form.
– Later, digital modulation techniques, Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) and Phase Shift
Keying (PSK) are used for transmitting those signals.
Earth Station-block diagram
 Earth stations - subsystems
• There are four major subsystems in any earth station: transmitter,
receiver, antenna and tracking subsystem.
1. Transmitter
• The binary (digital) information enters at baseband equipment of
earth station from terrestrial network. Encoder includes error
correction bits in order to minimize the bit error rate.
• In satellite communication, the Intermediate Frequency (IF) can be
chosen as 70 MHz by using a transponder having bandwidth of 36
MHz. Similarly, the IF can also be chosen as 140 MHz by using a
transponder having bandwidth of either 54 MHz or 72 MHz.
• Up-converter performs the frequency conversion of modulated
signal to higher frequency. This signal will be amplified by using
High power amplifier. The earth station antenna transmits this
signal.
 Earth stations - subsystems
2. Receiver
• During reception, the earth station antenna receives downlink
signal. This is a low-level modulated RF signal. In general, the
received signal will be having less signal strength. So, in order to
amplify this signal, Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) is used.
• RF signal can be down converted to the Intermediate Frequency
(IF) value, which is either 70 or 140 MHz. Because, it is easy to
demodulate at these intermediate frequencies.
• The decoder produces an error free binary information by
removing error correction bits and correcting the bit positions if
any.
• This binary information is given to base band equipment to deliver
to terrestrial network.
 Earth stations - subsystems
3. Earth Station Antenna
• The major parts of Earth station Antenna are feed system and
Antenna reflector. The earth station antennas are suitable for both
transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves.
• Parabolic reflectors are used as the main antenna in earth stations.

4. Tracking Subsystem
• The Tracking subsystem performs mainly two functions.
– satellite data acquisition and
– tracking of satellite.

• It keeps track with the satellite and make sure that the beam
comes towards it in order to establish the communication. This
tracking can be done by automatic tracking, manual tracking or
program tracking.
 Transponder
• A transponder receives and transmits radio signals at a
prescribed frequency range. After receiving the signal a
transponder will at the same time broadcast the signal at a
different frequency.
 VSAT
• Very small aperture terminal (VSAT) is a two-way satellite ground station with a
dish antenna that is smaller than 3.8 meters
• VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) is a satellite communications system that
serves home and business users. A VSAT end user needs a box that interfaces
between the user's computer and an outside antenna with a transceiver.
• The tranceiver receives or sends a signal to a satellite transponder in the sky.
 Hints.

• Describe the launching methods of a satellite in an orbit.

• Discuss the applications of satellite communication systems.
• What are various communication satellite orbits.
• Explain different satellite subsystems of earth stations with necessary
block diagrams.
Bangabandhu-1
Bangabandhu-1
Service area
• Primary service area (PSA): Bangladesh and
neighboring countries
• Secondary service areas (SSA): South East
Asia, Europe, Middle East and North Africa
(MENA), East Africa.
Bangabandhu 1
• Bangabandhu-1 is the first Bangladeshian geostationary communications
satellite.

• The satellite was ordered in November 2015 from Thales Alenia Space,
who will build, launch and operate the satellite for the Bangladesh
Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

• Built on Thales Alenia Space's Spacebus-4000B2 platform, Bangabandhu-1

is stationed at an orbital slot at longitude 119.1° east with 14 standard C-
band transponders and 26 Ku-band transponders.

• Was launched on 11 May, 2018

• Controlling ground station at Gazipur and another at Betbunia, Rangamati.

 Launching
• Bangabandhu Satellite-1 was launched at 20:14 UTC on
May 11, 2018, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle at the
Kennedy Space Center. It is the first payload to be
launched using the new Block 5 model of the rocket.

• Bangabandhu-1 had been previously scheduled to fly on

an Arianespace Ariane 5 ECA but Ariane was unable to
meet the contractual launch date, which enabled the
launch to be switched to its backup launcher, SpaceX
Summary
Nation: Bangladesh (11 May, 2018)
Application: Communication (tele), weather monitoring
Thales Alenia Space for Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory
Operator:
Commission (BTRC)
Manufacturer: Thales Alenia Space
Transponders: 40 (14 C-band, 26 Ku-band): 1600 GHz BW
Configuration: Spacebus-4000B2
6 kW (2 deployable solar arrays- 3-panels per wing with GaAs cells,
Power:
and Li-Ion Mono-battery)
Lifetime: 15 years
Mass: ~3700 kg
GEO (Platform: SPACEBUS 4000 B2)
Orbit details: (Orbital position: longitude 119.1° east, Perigee: 35789.3 km; Apogee:
35798.5 km)
The satellite was launched on-board Falcon 9 version 1.2 rocket.
Launch
Conducted from the SpaceX launch site at Cape Canaveral, Florida, US.
 Hints.
• Write a short note on BS-1 satellite
– Type
– Application
– Coverage area
– Frequency