SATELLITE

COMMUNICATION
Presented by
Afnan Ahmed Akash
B.Sc. on ETE, CUET
Network Engineer
Square InformatiX Ltd
Contents
Satellite communication
Radiation
Antenna
Satellite
Modulation
Noise & Attenuation
Satellite Frequency Bands
Satellite Transponder
Satellite network Topology
Multiple Access Techniques
HUB station Equipment
Remote (VSAT) Equipment
Block Diagram of HUB & Remotes
Why Satellite Communications?
• Huge Geographical Coverage
• No ‘line-of-site’ problems
• Extremely reliable (99.9% Up time)
• Reliable data broadcast or multicast
• Supports multiple applications:
• Video
• Data
• Voice
Radiation
 Electromagnetic Waves
 Outside visible range
 Wavelength (meters) – Length of each wave
 Frequency (Hz) – waves per second
 Dual nature – Wave & Particle
Radiation
 Polarization
 Orientation of the Electric field
 Types:
• Vertical Polarization
• Horizontal Polarization
• Circular Polarization

Behavior of Radiation
 Higher the frequency – more the hindrance
 Higher the frequency – lesser the wavelength – lesser the antenna size
 Different Frequencies – don’t interfere with each other
 Same Frequencies + same Polarization – interfere with each other
 Same Frequencies + different Polarization – don’t interfere with each other
Antenna
 Structure that focuses/concentrates radiation in a particular direction is antenna

Antenna

 Antenna is a passive device

 In satellite communication, Parabolic reflector antenna is mostly used
Antenna

Sub-Reflector

Feed

Main Reflector

King-Post

Figure: 9-meter parabolic reflector Antenna Figure: Direction of radiation

Antenna
 Antenna Gain:
 The focusing power of an antenna in a particular direction.
 Unit : dBi
𝐴𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑎𝐺𝑎𝑖𝑛=10 𝐿𝑜𝑔 ( 𝑃𝐹𝐷 𝑜𝑓 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑎
𝑃𝐹𝐷 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑖𝑐 𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑎 )
Here, [At same power ]
 Larger the antenna – higher the gain (behaves like a Laser) PDF = Power Flux Density
 Smaller the antenna – lower the gain (behaves like a Torch light) PFD of isotropic ant. =

Figure: Small antenna radiation footprint Figure: Large antenna radiation footprint
Satellite
 a smaller body that revolves around a planet Repeater
Tower-1 Tower-2
 Relays & Amplifies RF signals Tower-1 Tower-2

Why Satellite?
 Towers / antenna need LOS to comm.
 Repeater is needed to increase range of comm. Repeater

 Range of repeater increases with the increase of tower height

Tower-1 Tower-2
 A repeater at the tower height of 35,000 Km covers 1/3rd of earth.
 GEO satellite is at 35,000 Km above earth.
 So, its an orbiting microwave repeater. Satellite

 Huge Geographical Coverage

Tower-1 Tower-2
Satellite

Figure: Pictures of communication Satellite

Satellite
 Types of Satellite (based on Altitude & Orbit)
i. GEO (Geostationary Earth Orbit)
ii. MEO (Medium Earth Orbit)
iii. LEO (Low Earth Orbit)

i. GEO:
 Appears to be at a fixed point relative to earth.
 Altitude – 35,000 Km
 Speed 3 km/sec
 Completes 1 revolution around earth in 24 hrs
 Wide area of coverage
 Use – DTH, Telephone, VSAT
 Example: INTELSAT, Inmarsat, BS-1 , SES-9 , GSAT-9 , Asiasat etc.
Satellite
ii. MEO
 Altitude - 10,000 to 20,000 Km
 Speed – 6 Km/sec
 Completes 1 revolution around earth in 6 hrs
 More than 1 Satellite is required to give service to a particular area
 Use – GPS system

iii. LEO
 Altitude – (500 to 2000) Km
 Speed – 7.8 Km/sec
 Completes 1 revolution in 120 min LEO
 Satellite Constellation required.
GEO
 Use – Mobile comm, Imaging, Spying
 Starlink has successfully launched 2,300
LEO Satellites. (Planning – 30,000 satellites)
Satellite

Figure: GEO, MEO & LEO Satellite Communication

Satellite
 Types of Satellite (Based on weight):

Size Weight [Kg]

Picosat Less than 1
Nanosat 1 – 10
Microsat 10 – 100
Smallsat 100 – 1000
Standardsat More than 1000
Satellite
 Major Satellite Components
 Propulsion Subsystems
• Rocket Motors
• Thrusters
• Propulsion tank
 Communication subsystems
• Antennas
• Transponders
 Power subsystems
• Solar panels & Battery
 Attitude Control
 Thermal Control
 TTC (Tracking, Telemetry & Command) Figure: Satellite Payload
• Provides status to earth station
• Accepts commands from earth station
• Helps earth station to track satellite
Satellite
 Rocket subsystem:

Second stage

First stage
Satellite
 Satellite Footprint:
 Coverage area of a satellite

 Coverage Area of BS-1 Satellite:

Modulation
How do we transfer data through EMF/carrier waves?

 It is the process of putting data on radio/EM/carrier waves

 If the data is analog, then it is Analog Modulation
 If the data is digital, then it is digital modulation
 Modern satellite comm. is mainly based on digital modulation
 Types of Digital Modulation:
 ASK (Amplitude Shift Keying)
 FSK (Frequency Shift Keying)
 PSK (Phase shift Keying)
 Carrier: It is a radio frequency on which modulation is done.
Modulation
 ASK  FSK
Modulation
 PSK

Figure: constellation diagram

Noise vs Attenuation
 Noise  Attenuation
Frequency & Bandwidth
If we transmit a single frequency, then why do we need a bandwidth?

Fourier Transform
Bandwidth & Bitrate

Let, Bandwidth = 12 MHz

carrier spacing = 1.05 (i.e., 5% unusable bandwidth)
Modulation = 32APSk, which is 5 bits per symbol/wave
FEC = 7/9

= 44.4 Mbps
Satellite Frequency Bands
 L-Band
 GPS(Global Positioning System)
 Sat Phone
 Ex: Iridium, Inmarsat
 S-Band
 NASA uses to comm with ISS
 C-Band
 TV broadcasting
 VSAT service
 Used in area susceptible to rain
 Ku-Band
 DTH (Direct To Home)
 VSAT service
 Small antenna can be used
Transponder
 Transponder = Repeater + Frequency Down Converter
 Repeater – it receives, amplifies & retransmits
 Downconverter – Converts high frequency to Low Frequency

 RX antenna receives all bands/frequencies from earth station.

 CF only passes the required bands
 LNA provides around 20 dB initial gain
 Mixer down converts the band
 HPA provides high gain to the signal
 OF and TX antenna retransmits the signal to earth station
Transponder
 Frequency segmentation
 Process of dividing the whole satellite bandwidth into smaller groups
 Ex: Total C-band Bandwidth of a particular satellite is 500 or 300 MHz
 This 500 MHz bandwidth is divided into 36 MHz bands for use.
 One Transponder deals with 36 MHz band
 So, there are 24 transponders
 12 in Horizontal Pole
 12 in Vertical Pole
 Frequency reuse is done through Polarization

Figure: Frequency Plan for Downlink channels

Topology
 Arrangement in which a network is designed
 Types
I. Star Topology
II. Mesh Topology
III. Hybrid Topology (Star + Mesh)

I. Star Topology:
 Every VSAT is connected to a common point (HUB)
 Every data should go through HUB
 All VSATs only comm. with HUB Figure: Star Topology
Topology
II. Mesh Topology:
 Every VSAT can comm. with each other

Figure: Mesh Topology

Topology
III. Hybrid Topology:
 Some VSATs behaves like Star
 Some VSATs behave like Mesh
 Combination of both Topologies

Figure: Hybrid Topology

 Multiple Access Techniques
 Techniques in which multiple users/VSATs use the same resource(Bandwidth)
 Types:
I. TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access)
II. FDMA/SCPC (Frequency Division Multiple Access)/(Single Channel Per Carrier)
III. MF-TDMA (Multi Frequency – Time Division Multiple Access)
I. TDMA

1st 30 ms – HUB
2nd 30 ms – VSAT-1
3rd 30 ms – VSAT-2
4th 30 ms – VSAT-3

Slot-01 Slot-02 Slot-03 Slot-04

HUB VSAT-01 VSAT-02 VSAT-03
30 ms 30 ms 30 ms 30 ms
VSAT-3
Time Frame HUB
VSAT-2
VSAT-1
Multiple Access Techniques
II. FDMA/SCPC
 Each terminal will get dedicated bandwidth
 Wastage of bandwidth occurs

VSAT-3
HUB
VSAT-2
VSAT-1
Multiple Access Techniques
III. MF-TDMA
 Combination of FDMA & TDMA
 First, we divide the Bandwidth
 Then, multiple terminals share
a band in time slots.
 Time slot allocation is done by HUB
for the remotes.

HUB
3 3 3 3
Ground (HUB) Station
Ground (HUB) Station
 It is a terrestrial radio station designed to Tx & Rx radio signal to & from satellite.
 Uses star Topology
 It is the master station
 Uses MFTDMA technique
 All VSATs only comm. with HUB
 Inter VSAT comm. is done through HUB
 Equipment's:
 RF Eq:  Baseband Eq:
 9 m Antenna  Chassis
 ACU  Tx & RX cards
 BUC  Protocol Processor servers
 LNB  Network Management System Servers
 Beacon receiver
 ULPC
VSAT/Remote Terminal
 VSAT – Very Small Aperture Terminal
 This terminal communicates with HUB through satellite
 Transmits in time slots provided by the HUB station
 Equipment’s
 RF Eq  Baseband Eq
 1.8 m Antenna  Modem
 BUC
 LNB
 HUB Chassis
 Contains slots
 RX & TX cards are placed in those slots
 Modulation & Demodulation

L-Band L-Band Fig:20 slot HUB Chassis

RF Signal RF Signal
Digital Data Digital Data
Electrical Electrical

Ethernet cable Co-axial Cable Co-axial Cable Ethernet cable

ULC-T (TX card) ULC-R (RX card)

Modulation Demodulation
VSAT Modems
 Remote VSAT’s Modulator & Demodulator
L-Band
RF Signal
Digital Data Electrical

L-Band
Digital Data RF Signal
 Features: Electrical
 DVB-S2 (up to 45 Msps) / DVB-S2X (up to 100 Msps)
outbound
 DVB-S2X MODCODS up to 256APSK
 Adaptive TDMA up to 7.5 Msps, 16QAM modulation
 Ideal for both fixed and mobility applications
 Easy to use and install with remote commissioning
systems
 Layer 2 and Layer 3 optimized
BUC
 Block Up Converter
 Amplifier + Frequency Up converter
 Electrical signal to EM signal
L band Ku band
Electrical Signal Electromagnetic Signal
BUC
Co-axial Cable Waveguide Figure: 200-Watt Lower Ku band BUC
For HUB

Figure: 4-Watt Lower Ku band BUC

For VSAT
LNB
 Low Noise Block Down Converter
 Amplifier + Frequency Down converter
 EM signal to electrical signal
Ku band L band
Electromagnetic Signal Electrical Signal
LNB
Waveguide Co-axial Cable

Figure: Lower Ku-Band LNB

For HUB & VSAT
Remote VSAT Diagram

L band
KU-Band
Remote VSAT

Figure: Rare Panel of fixed antenna & OMT

Beacon Receiver
 Receive Beacon signal from satellite
 Converts it to DC value based on signal strength
 (0 to 10) V
 Used for antenna tracking and weather condition detection

Satellite Beacon Signal Changing DC voltage

Based on weather

L-Band (0 to 10) V
Form LNB
Figure: Beacon Receiver
ULPC
 Uplink Power Control
 Based on weather, it increases or decreases TX Power
 Receives weather information from beacon receiver

Beacon Receiver

TX Card
BUC (0 to 10) V DC Output
Based on weather

L- Band L-Band
Attenuation
(0 to 3) dB
(-16 to -19)dB -16 dBm

ULPC
Servers
 PP server(Protocol Processor)  NMS server(Network Management System)
 Gives (MFTDMA) timing slots to the VSATs  Monitoring up and down C/N
 Determines Modulations for HUB & VSAT  Monitoring TX power of HUB & VSAT
 Encapsulation  iBuilder software
 Decapsulation  iMonitor software
ACU
 Antenna Control Unit
HUB Engineering Block Diagram
HUB Racks

BUC Routers

ACU (IDU)
CUCM
Beacon Receiver
PP servers
ULPC

Spectrum NMS servers

Analyzer

Chassis with cards

HUB Antenna

Figure: 9-meter HUB Antenna

Square Informatix Hub Station @ Kashimpur, Gazipur, Dhaka
THANK
YOU
Any Questions