Satellite Systems
Objective: To introduce satellite communications and provide details of the particulars of satellite systems design
Outline
Introduction History Basics Categorization of satellite systems
Geostationary earth orbit (GEO) Medium earth orbit (MEO) Low earth orbit (LEO)
Routing Localization
Introduction
Satellite is a system that supports mobile communications It offers global coverage without wiring costs for base stations and is almost independent of varying population densities Two or more stations on Earth
Called Earth Stations
Applications
Traditionally
Weather forecasting: several satellites deliver pictures of the earth. Radio and TV broadcast satellites: hundreds of radio and TV programs are available via satellite. This technology competes with cable in many places as it is cheap Military satellites Satellites for navigation and localization (e.g., GPS). Almost all ships and aircraft rely on GPS in addition to traditional navigation systems.
Applications
Telecommunication
Global telephone backbones: one of the first applications was the establishment of international telephone backbones. However, these satellites are increasingly being replaced by fiber optical cables crossing the oceans. Connections for communication in remote places or underdeveloped areas Global mobile communication: the latest trend is the support of global mobile data communication. Due to high latency, GEO satellites are not ideal for this task, but satellite in lower orbits are used. The purpose is not to replace the existing mobile phone network but to extend the area of coverage.
Basics
Elliptical or circular orbits Complete rotation time depends on distance satellite-earth Inclination: angle between orbit and equator Elevation: angle between satellite and horizon LOS (Line of Sight) to the satellite necessary for connection
- high elevation needed, less absorption due to e.g. buildings
- Footprint: area on earth that is covered by satellite (where signals of satellite can be received) typically separated frequencies for uplink and downlink
transponder used for sending/receiving and shifting of frequencies transparent transponder: only shift of frequencies regenerative transponder: additionally signal regeneration
Inclination
plane of satellite orbit
satellite orbit
Elevation
Elevation: angle e between center of satellite beam and surface
Todays communication satellites provides many functions of higher communication layers, e.g., intersatellite routing and error correction.
Satellite Systems
footprint
PSTN
GSM
User data
varying strength of received signal due to multipath propagation interruptions due to shadowing of signal (no LOS)
Possible solutions
satellite diversity (usage of several visible satellites at the same time) helps to use less sending power
Satellite Communications
Categorisation
Coverage area: global, regional or national. Larger systems require more satellites Service type: fixed satellite service (FSS), broadcast satellite service (BSS), or mobile satellite service (MSS)
Satellite Communications
Design considerations
Area/coverage; some satellites can cover almost 33% of earths surface, transmission cost becomes invariant of distance Bandwidth; is a very limited resource. Transmission quality; is usually very high, though delay can be up to second
Frequency bands:
C-band (4 and 6 GHz) Ku-band (11 and 14 GHz
Satellite Communications
Orbit
Can be circular or elliptical around the center of earth Can be in different (e.g. polar or equatorial) or same planes Can be Geostationary (GEO), Medium (MEO) or Low (LEO) Coverage is affected by objects such as buildings, by atmospheric attenuation, and electrical noise from earth
GEO
MEO
LEO
Orbits
Three different types of satellite orbits can be identified depending on diameter of the orbit: GEO (Geostationary Earth Orbit), 36000 km above earth surface LEO (Low Earth Orbit): 500 - 1500 km MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) or ICO (Intermediate Circular GEO (Inmarsat) Orbit): 6000 - 20000 km
MEO (ICO) LEO (Globalstar, Irdium) earth 1000 10000 inner and outer Van Allen belts
35768 km
fix antenna positions, no adjusting necessary satellites typically have a large footprint (up to 34% of earth surface!), therefore difficult to reuse frequencies bad elevations in areas with latitude above 60 due to fixed position above the equator high transmit power needed high latency due to long distance (0.24 sec)
not useful for global coverage for small mobile phones and data transmission, typically used for radio and TV transmission
Disadvantages
35,000km is a long way for signals to travel Polar regions not well served Long delay (2 * 35,863)/300000 = 0.24s
MEO systems
comparison with LEO systems:
slower moving satellites less satellites needed simpler system design for many connections no hand-over needed higher latency, ca. 70 - 80 ms higher sending power needed special antennas for small footprints needed
Satellite Communications
Satellite Network Configurations
Point to Point Two earth stations and one satellite Broadcast Link One earth transmitter, one satellite, many receivers
Satellite Communications
VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal)
Two-way communications via ground hub Subscribers have low cost antennas Subscribers communicate via hub
Routing
One solution: inter satellite links (ISL)
reduced number of gateways needed forward connections or data packets within the satellite network as long as possible only one uplink and one downlink per direction needed for the connection of two mobile phones
Problems:
more complex focusing of antennas between satellites high system complexity due to moving routers higher fuel consumption thus shorter lifetime
Iridium and Teledesic planned with ISL Other systems use gateways and additionally terrestrial networks
Summary
The trend for communication satellite is moving away from big GEOs, towards the smaller MEOs and LEOs for the reason of lower delay. Special problems of LEOs is the high system complexity and the relatively short lifetime Most LEO satellites fly over non or sparsely populated areas- too few customers A new application for satellite is the satellite digital multi-media broadcasting