Satellite communication

Unit test – 2 Answers

Part - A
1. List the ionospheric effects on space link.
 Faraday rotation – Linearly polarized wave undergoes a rotation of the direction
of polarization caused by the different phase velocities of right and left hand
polarized waves in the ionosphere.
 Propagation delay – Due to sublayers in ionosphere layer.
 Scintillations – Variations of the signal amplitude and phase due to ionospheric
irregularities.
 Refraction – Changes in the apparent angle of signal arrival.
2. Define EIRP.
An isotropic radiator with an input power equal to GPS would
produce the same flux density. Hence, the product of antenna gain and transmit
power is referred as Equivalent Isotropic Radiated Power (or) Effective Isotropic
Radiated Power.
3. List the parameters decide the system reliability.
Random failures and wear-out decide the system reliability. Random
failures are modelled as Poisson distributed and wear-out as normal or Gaussian
distributed.
4. Interpret link power budget equation.
The [EIRP] can be considered as the input power to a transmission link.
The major source of loss in any ground-satellite link is the free-space spreading
loss [FSL], the basic link-power budget equation taking into account this loss
only. The losses for clear-sky conditions are
[LOSSES]=[FSL]+[RFL]+[AML]+[AA]+[PL]
The power at the receiver may be calculated as
[PR]=[EIRP]-[LOSSES]+[GR],
5. Define intermodulation noise.
When a large number of modulated carriers are passed through any device with
nonlinear characteristics (TWTA), the intermodulation products are not
distinguishable separately but instead appear as a type of noise which is termed
intermodulation noise.
6. Which parameter is generally regarded as figure of merit? Why?
Antenna gain-to-noise-temperature (G/T) is a figure of merit in the
characterization of antenna performance, where G is the antenna gain in decibels at
the receive frequency, and T is the equivalent noise temperature of the receiving
system in kelvins. T is the sum of the antenna noise temperature and the RF chain
noise temperature from the antenna terminals to the receiver output.
 Part - B
1. Explain the components of communication payload with necessary diagram.
2. Explain in detail about performance impairments in satellite communication.
i) System noise:
 Thermal noise: It is generated in any resistor or resistive component of any impedance
due to random motion of molecules, atoms and electrons. It is called thermal noise as
the temperature of a body is root mean square of the velocity of motion of these
particles. Noise power generated in a resistor is directly proportional to its absolute
temperature in addition to the bandwidth as,

Where T is the absolute temperature in Kelvin, B is the bandwidth,

k – Boltzmann’s constant = 1.38 X 10-23 J/K.
The noise generator will transfer maximum noise power Pn to a matched load given
by,

Thus noise voltage is given by,

where noise spectral density Pno is given by,

 Noise figure:

Noise figure in the case of an ideal device is unity and any value of noise figure
greater than unity means a noisy device.
 Noise temperature: It is the temperature of a resistance that would generate the same
noise power at the output of an ideal device as that produced at the output by an actual
device when terminated at its input by a noiseless resistance. The relation between noise
figure and noise temperature is given by,

 Noise figure and noise temperature of cascaded stages:

Noise temperature for ‘n’ stages is given by,

Thus noise figure for ‘n’ stages is given by,

 Antenna noise temperature:

It is a measure of the noise entering the receiver via the antenna. The antenna picks
up noise radiated by various man-made and natural sources which includes noise
generated by electrical equipment, solar radiation, sky noise, background noise by earth,
galactic noise from radio stars, atmospheric noise due to lightning flashes and
absorption by oxygen and water vapour molecules.
The noise performance of an antenna can be expressed in terms of a noise
temperature referred to as antenna noise temperature. If the antenna noise temperature is
TA K, it implies that the noise power output of the antenna is equal to the thermal noise
power generated in a resistor at the temperature of TA K. In case of satellite antenna main
sources of noise are the earth and outer space. In case of earth station antenna the main
sources of noise are sky noise and ground noise. The sky noise is due to radiation from
sun, moon, atmospheric absorption by oxygen and water vapour molecules.
 Overall system noise temperature:
The overall system is a cascaded arrangement of the antenna, feeder and receiver.
The expression for the system noise temperature with reference to the output of the antenna
is given by,

Where TF – ambient temperature of feeder, LF – attenuation factor of the feeder

ii) Intermodulation distortion: It is caused due to generation and interference of

intermodulation products within the satellite transponder as a result of amplification of
multiple carriers in the TWTA. Intermodulation product generation is due to both
amplitude and phase nonlinearity. The transfer characteristics of a typical TWTA shows
the linear characteristics only upto a certain low input drive level and become increasingly
nonlinear as the output power approaches saturation. Intermodulation products can be
avoided by operating the amplifier in the linear region by reducing or backing off the input
drive. Reduced input drive leads to a reduced output power. This results in reduced
capacity.
 FDMA systems are prone to intermodulation distortion due to multiple carrier. This
results in single carrier per transponder TDMA systems popular as it can be operated at or
close to the saturation level without any intermodulation products. This maximizes the
EIRP for the downlink. In addition, earth station needs to exercise a greater control over
the transmitted power so as to minimize the overdrive of the satellite transponder and the
consequent increase in intermodulation interference.
iii) Interference:
 Interference between satellite and terrestrial links: Satellite and terrestrial
microwave communication links cause interference to each other when they share a
common frequency band. The C band frequency is allocated to both satellite as well as
terrestrial microwave links. The level of interference depends on carrier power, carrier
power spectral density and frequency offset between the two carriers. Thus these type
of interference can be reduced by using a frequency offset between the satellite and
terrestrial carriers.
 Interference due to adjacent satellites: This is caused due to the presence of sidelobes
in addition to the desired main lobe in the radiation pattern of the ES antenna. If the
angular separation between the two adjacent satellite systems is not too large, it is
possible that the power radiated through the side lobes of the antenna radiation pattern
whose main lobe is directed towards the intended satellite, interferes with the received
signal of the adjacent satellite system.

 Cross polarization interference: It occurs in frequency reuse satellite systems due

to coupling of energy from one polarization state to the other orthogonally polarized
state in communication systems that employ orthogonal linear polarizations
(Horizontal and Vertical) and orthogonal circular polarization (Right hand circular
and Left hand circular). It is mainly due to rain at frequencies above 10 GHz.
 Cross polarization discrimination is defined as the ratio of the power received by
the antenna in principal polarization to that received in orthogonal polarization from
the same incident signal. It must be 30-40 dB along the antenna axis.
 Adjacent channel interference: It occurs when the transponder bandwidth is
simultaneously shared by multiple carriers having closely spaced center frequencies
within the transponder bandwidth. This results in the part of the carrier power in the
channel overlap with the adjacent channel power. It can be avoided by using guard
band and filtering which further increase the bandwidth.
iv) Propagation characteristics and frequency considerations: