10 Gb/s Wireless Earth to Moon Link

Abhijeet Bharambe, Hrushikesh Pataskar, Rhium Mukherjee, Priyanka Sinha

Graduate Student, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida,
Gainesville, Florida, 32611, USA
Abstract This project describes design, implementation
and performance analysis of a 10 Gbps wireless data link
between ground station on earth and moon, where BER is
less than 1x10-5 before applying error coding. Feasibility of
the said design is also analyzed in terms of availability of the
required components. An earth to moon wireless connection
at such high data rate presents serious design challenges, as
path loss becomes very high due to the huge distance between
transmitter and receiver, and high attenuation rate offered at
higher operating frequencies. Limited availability of
practical components operating at such high frequency, with
required bandwidth specification, also requires stringent
design consideration on part of the designer. Thus one of the
main design concerns is proper choice of frequency. The
entire scope of the project includes determining orbital
location of objects present in the link, computing required
transmitted power for effective communication to take place
across the link, choosing suitable data rate, modulation
technique and transceiver architecture, simulation and
analysis using Agilent ADS CAD tool and Link budget
analysis using SysCalc.
Index Terms BER, Link Budget, path loss, ADS,
SysCalc, BER, QPSK, Direct-Conversion architecture, power
amplifier, Band pass filters, Line-of-sight propagation,
Satellite antennas.

I. INTRODUCTION
As depicted in [1], future expansion of manned space
activities would require high capacity information
communications system in order to preserve the security
of the manned space activities. For human-space activities
to spread till moon, for the purpose of inhabitation,
deployment or simple space exploration, we have to be
able to build high-speed communication system first.
Although physical link in optical form (such as laser) is
proven to be more suitable for such long distance
communication, in this project we intend to implement a
10 Gbps radio link between earth and moon. As
mentioned earlier, such long-distance communication
faces problems of huge path-loss, attenuation and so on.
Although it is difficult to get the ideal solution in such a
case, we try to achieve the optimal design for the same.
The map of the report is as follows: Section II analyses
the geographical positions of the objects present in the
communication link between Earth and Moon and its
effect on the communication process. Section III lists the
assumptions that are made in order to make and simplify
the mathematical model of the given physical situation.
Section IV deals with the selection of duplexing

mechanism, operating frequencies, and modulation

techniques. In Section.V system simulation parameters
like path loss, transmitter power and receiver sensitivity
are computed using theoretical equations. The
transceivers architecture is designed using ADS and the
practical components required for the implementation of
those architectures are listed in Section VI. In section VII,
the basic performance metrics like bandwidth efficiency,
probability of bit error and so on are analyzed from the
spectrums and received signals. Section VIII describes the
use of SysCalc for carrying out Link Budget Analysis and
determining gain margin. Section IX concludes the report
by analyzing practical feasibility of the said wireless link,
suggesting ways to improve the performance, which can
lead to opportunity to continue future work upon.
II. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITIONS OF ORBITAL
OBJECTS IN THE LINK.
Currently high speed data exchange between Earth and
Earth orbiting man made satellites is possible however a
simple extension of such a satellite link to distances as far
as the moon is very challenging. The challenge comes
from the distance between the communicating parties and
their geographical location. Consider Fig. 1 which
shows the feasibility of a setup between earth and moon.

Fig. 1.
moon.

Distances: Earth to geo-stationary satellite & satellite to

As the Moon revolves around the earth, a direct link

between a ground station on earth and moon is not
practically implementable. The solution is to design the
link in two parts, the first link connects a geo-stationary
satellite to earth and the second part of it connects the
satellite to the moon. The equatorial plane makes an angle
of
which has a
mean radius of
.The orbit of the geostationary
satellite lies in the Equatorial plane of earth and it has an
average radius of
. From Figure.1, we can see
that there can be a situation where the earth comes in
between the moon and the satellite, which might hinder
the existing Line of Sight (LOS) between the moon and
the satellite. But in this case, the LOS between the moon
and the satellite is still maintained by a path, which is
away from the center of the Earth and has a
radius of
.
Now, the orbit of the moon around the earth is elliptical
in nature, which causes the moon to be at varying
distances from the centre of the earth, at different times.
When moon is at the shortest (368000 km) and longest
(432000 km) distance from earth, moons positions are
known as Perigee and Apogee respectively. Therefore
in order to account for the weakest received signal at
Apogee, we will consider the maximum distance to be the
distance between the stations. Our link budget will have 2
sets of forward and reverse links, as follows:
1) Earth ----> Satellite (36000 km - Downlink)
2) Satellite ----> Earth (36000 km - Uplink)
3) Satellite---->Moon(432000-36000=39600km,
Downlink)
4) Moon---->Satellite (39600 km, Downlink)
III. ASSUMPTIONS FOR MATHEMATICAL
MODEL
We need to make certain assumptions for our design to
hold:
1) As derived in the above section, the distance
between moon and satellite is taken to be constant
at 396000 km, although in reality it varies over
time.
2) Also as discussed, in the last section there always
exists an LOS over the link.
3) There exists no certain constraint on transmitted
power in order to make the received signal
detectable at the receiver for effective
communication to take place.
4) There is no constraint on availability of practical
components as well.

IV. FREQUENCIES, MODULATION TECHNIQUES,

DUPLEXING TECHNIQUE, BANDWIDTH REQUIREMENT.
BER, energy efficiency, and bandwidth efficiency are
the metrics that are usually considered while making a
choice of modulation technique. In our case the
communication takes place over a huge distance, which
makes the transmitted symbols more vulnerable to noise,

fading and other channel impairments, and thus a

modulation technique with a lower BER is required.
Along with a low BER, we also aim to achieve higher
energy efficiency, so as to transmit as less power as
possible to reduce the cost to its optimum. Although these
set of requirements can be fulfilled by various modulation
techniques as BPSK, QPSK, M-are QAM and so on, our
situation has added requirement of high data-rate, and
hence QPSK, QAM and other higher order PSK
modulations are preferred to BPSK although BPSK has
same BER as QPSK. Although in terms of achieving high
data rate, QAM is more effective than QPSK, we do need
to take care of the spectral congestion and be able to
design our system for available limited bandwidth. Since
QPSK as higher bandwidth efficiency as compared to
QAMs, we narrow down our choice of modulation to
QPSK. QPSK also has better energy efficiency as
compared to FSK.
In order to be able to transmit and receive at the same
time, we need to incorporate channel duplexing methods
in our system. In order to lower the complexity of the
communication system we choose Frequency Division
Duplexing, and it also provides nominal interference
between the forward and reverse traffic.
Our aim is to choose an operating frequency that will
lead to lower pathloss, lower atmospheric attenuation, be
compatible with high data-rate and have sufficient suitable
components available for practical components. After
computing losses with various frequencies and performing
an extensive component search, we found that the
frequencies that offer optimal solution are as follows:
1) Earth-->Satellite(22.5-27.5GHz,fcenter=25 GHz)
2) Satellite-->Earth (17-22 GHz, fcenter=19.5 GHz)
3) Satellite-->Moon(11.5-16.5GHz,fcenter=14GHz)
4) Moon-->Satellite (6 - 11 GHz, fcenter =8.5 GHz)
We know that if data rate increases, which mean
faster variation of signal amplitude in time domain,
more number of harmonics is required for
representation of the same signal in frequency
domain, leading to larger bandwidth. Our data rate
is R=10 Gbps, for QPSK, Bandwidth efficiency,
=2 bps/Hz = R/B. therefore we would be requiring
5 GHz channel bandwidth to accommodate
transmitted data at 10Gbps using QPSK. (As
channel narrower than transmission bandwidth
leads to severe symbol distortion)
V. COMPUTING SYSTEM PARAMETERS
As we already know, and as it is evident from [2], [3]
there has been intensive research on building and
improving earth to satellite links in past. Therefore we
decide to lay more emphasis on building the satellite to
Moon link. So we will be discussing the parameters for
satellite to Moon to link elaborately.
1. Antenna Temperature
The Antenna temperature depends only on the object on
which the antenna beam impinges. As the Earth to

Satellite link points towards to satellite, which lies in the

horizon of the sky, and the typical antenna temperature for
sky horizon, is 5K, the antenna temperature for the earth
station would be 5K. Similarly for the Moon to satellite
link, the temperature will be 50K. Typical antenna
temperature for earth is 300K, so antenna temperature for
satellite to Earth is 300K. The Antenna temperature of
satellite pointing to Moon is assumed to be 2900K, t the
Ku band.
2. Receiver Sensitivity
For QPSK BER is given by:
(1)
Required BER =
=>
.
Data rate, R = 1 Gbps , SNRreq=10dB, Noise Figure,
(typical of receivers), T=5K, =>
10log(KT)=-191.63 dBm/Hz
Now, we know that sensitivity of a receiver is given by:

(2)
Hence

-71.dBm.

3. Path Loss
As discussed earlier, distance between Earth and the
satellite is
. The total pathloss in given as
follows:
Pathloss = 20 log (/4*pi*d) + loss due to O2, H2O, rain
But in case of moon-satellite link, the atmospheric
attenuation is not included, pathloss in this case is only
due to free space pathloss.
= Wavelength = C/f
For satellite to Moon link, f = 14 GHz. From the above
equation, pathloss = 227.3 dB. Similarly the pathloss for
Earth to satellite link is 211.1 dB
4. Transmitter Power Requirement
The transmitted power should be sufficient to overcome
the pathloss and additional attenuation and still produce
power atleast equal or greater than the receiver sensitivity,
in order to make the received signal detectable. If Pt is the
transmitted power, Gt and Gr are the transmitting and
receiving antenna gains, then received power,

integration and elimination of image frequency (single

carrier). The transmitter and receiver are is designed and
simulated using ADS to obtain the optimal power
requirement. Figure.(3) displays the schematic developed
in ADS. The transmitter does not a local oscillator, as in
our transmitter, digital modulation is perfromed on digital
signal from LFSR sources. have a Following available
components can be used for the practical implementation
of the design:
1) The Transmitter input IQ modulator is IQ-0917 by
Marki microwave.
2) Model GT-1000A Microwave Power Amplifier 2
GHz to 20 GHz by Giga-tronix.
3) Customized bandpass filters are obtained by quoting
appropriate specifications to manufacturers.
4) Raised Cosine filters are used for pulse shaping of
modulated signal in order to produce a clearer
spectrum and a faster roll off.
One of the main objectives of receiver design is to meet
the low noise figure requirement, where LNA plays a key
role. In the receiver we amplify and filter the signal in two
stages in order to get clearer spectrum and keep Q-factor
of the bandpass filters relaxed. the The schematic is shown
in Figure.(4). Following componets are suggested for
implemenattion:
1) The LNA is 2-18 GHz Low Noise Amplifier with
AGC TGA2525 by Triquint
2) Customized bandpass filters are obtained by quoting
appropriate specifications to manufacturers.
3) AD8333 DC to 50 MHZ, Dual I/Q Demodulator by
Analog devices

VII. TRANSMITTER AND RECEIVER PERFORMANCE

ANALYSIS
From the figure we can see, that there is not much
distortion, as the amplifiers are operated in the linear
region. However it is observed that the gain in the side
lobe is little more. The RF null to null bandwidth is easily
observed to be same as the data rate, thus giving high
bandwidth efficiency. Fig.(2) shows the input and
output spectrum.

(3)
While carrying out the link-budget analysis, we use
various values of Gt and Gr , in order to find out the
optimal transmitted power and gain margin.
VI. TRANSMITTER AND RECEIVER DESIGN USING ADS
Here we are using direct-conversion architecture for our
transceiver design. Some of the several advantages that
this architecture has to offer are:Very high level

Fig. 2.

Power spectrum at the input and out of the HPA

Figure.4 Receiver Schematic

Figure.3 Transmitter Schematic

The Constellation received at the output of the IQ
demodulator at the receiver is shown in Fig. 4. Since we
have not introduced noise and fading in our simulation we
do not see any symbol going in error. However on a
practical channel there will be some errors. Hence we
have to stick to the required receiver sensitivity as well as
provide some margin if possible.

SFDR3 and so on. The Gain Margin obtained from the

simulation turned out to be positive, which implies that the
system can deliver the required power to the receiver,
which is truly essential for an effective communication to
take place. Suitable values of antenna gains are fed and
system is calibrated. The optimum values of the satellite
antenna and the moon ground station are found to be 50dB
and 70dB respectively. Snapshots of the simulation are
shown in figure.5 and figure.6

Fig.6 Satellite to Moon Link Budget Analysis using SysCalc.

IX. CONCLUSION
Fig.5 Link Budget Analysis using SysCalc

VIII. LINK BUDGET CALCULATION USING SYSCALC

The link budget analysis is carried out using SysCalc tool.
First we build a block diagram of the intended
receiver/transmitter in SysCac, enter the parameters
related to them, input the antenna gain, temperature, total
pathloss as calculated in section and run the simulation.
In output we get the power required to be transmitted,
Noise Figure, gain margin and so on. The standard
analysis performed along with link budget analysis yields
parameters like: MDS, Sensitivity, Eb/No, IIP3, OIP3,

After carrying out the design, simulation and

component-search suitable for practical implementation,
we hereby conclude that it is possible to create a 10 Gbps
link that achieves an error rate of 10-5, without error
control coding. As seen from our simulation, lower
bandwidth leads to lower receiver sensitivity and hence
lesser transmitted power. Therefore to design the
optimally economic link, one should strive to achieve
lower bandwidth requirement, which is possible by 1)
using a bandwidth efficient modulation technique, 2)
using an efficient pulse-shaping method, 3) dividing up
channels into a number of narrower subcarriers by method
of OFDM and so on. These all techniques can be

incorporated in the future design of such links, in order to

attain lower power and hence gain requirements.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank Dr. Jenshan Lin for giving us
this fine opportunity work on such projects and thus gain
the much needed hands-on experience. We are also highly
indebted to Ms. Yan Yan for her kind help and valuable
suggestions during the course of the project.
REFERENCES
[1] [1] FUTURE VISION OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS
FOR EXPANDING HUMAN ACTIVITIES Yoshiaki Suzuki,
Hiromitsu Wakana and Takashi Iida

[2] Gigabit Satellite Network Using NASA's Advanced

Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS):Features,
Capabilities, and Operations by Marcos A. Bergamo, Ph.D.,
Principal Investigator and Doug Hoder, M.S.E.E., ACTS
High Data Rate Project Engineer
[3] System
Study on
Advanced
Gigabit
Satellite
Communications Rhai, A.Saifudin, H.Okazawa, Nhdowaki
andM.Yamamoto Communications Research Laboratoty,
Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications
[4] Wikipedia Earth at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth as
of April 21, 2011
[5] http://www.odyseus.nildram.co.uk/Systems_And_Devices_
Files/Sat_Comms.pdf
[6] Wikipedia Moon at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon as
of April 21, 2011
[7] WikipediaGeostationary orbit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_orbit as of April
21, 2011