ETE 4217- Satellite

Communications & RADAR

COURSE CONDUCTED BY
SHARAF TASNIM
LECTURER, DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & TELECOMMUNICATION
ENGINEERING, RUET.
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Learning Outcome

 How a Satellite works

 Satellite System
 Earth Station
 Transmultiplexing
 Review Questions

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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How a Satellite Works

 A satellite is a body that moves around another body in a particular path. A

communication satellite is nothing but a microwave repeater station in space. It is
helpful in telecommunications, radio and television along with internet applications.
 A repeater is a circuit, which increases the strength of the received signal and then
transmits it. But, this repeater works as a transponder. That means, it changes the
frequency band of the transmitted signal from the received one.
The transmission of signal from first earth station to satellite through a channel is called
as uplink. Similarly, the transmission of signal from satellite to second earth station
through a channel is called as downlink.

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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How a Satellite Works

The following figure illustrates this concept clearly.

Uplink frequency is the frequency at which, the

first earth station is communicating with satellite.
The satellite transponder converts this signal into
another frequency and sends it down to the
second earth station. This frequency is called as
Downlink frequency. In similar way, second earth
station can also communicate with the first one.

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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How a Satellite Works

 The process of satellite communication begins at an earth station. Here, an

installation is designed to transmit and receive signals from a satellite in an
orbit around the earth. Earth stations send the information to satellites in the
form of high powered, high frequency (GHz range) signals.
 The satellites receive and retransmit the signals back to earth where they are
received by other earth stations in the coverage area of the satellite.
Satellite's footprint is the area which receives a signal of useful strength from
the satellite.

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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How a Satellite Works

 Why uplink and downlink frequencies are different? Or, Why uplink frequency is higher
than downlink frequency?
Uplink frequency is different from downlink frequency for following reasons:
The satellite transmitter generates a signal that would jam its own receiver, if both
uplink and downlink uses the same frequency.
Trying to receive and transmit an amplified version of the same uplink waveform at
same satellite will cause unwanted feedback around from the downlink antenna
back into the receiver. So, If the frequencies were equal, a satellite wouldn’t transmit
and receive at the same time.
Frequency band separation allows the same antenna to be used for both receiving
and transmitting, simplifying and reducing satellite hardware.

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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How a Satellite Works

 The uplink frequency is the frequency which is used for transmission of signals
from earth station transmitter to the satellite.
 At higher frequency attenuation is more hence more power will be required
for signal transmission to ensure that it reaches the destination with the
required minimum power.
 Higher power requirements involve the use of high power amplifiers with high
ratings and heat sinks.
 This will increase the weight on satellite and will result in higher power
consumption, which results in great amount of inefficiency.

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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A Basic Satellite System

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
 9
A Basic Satellite System

 User: Generates baseband signal.

 Terrestrial Network: telephone switch or dedicated link to earth station.
Acts as a router.
 Earth Station (Tx): Processes the baseband signal and transmits it to a
modulated radio frequency(RF) carrier to the satellite.
 Satellite: Acts as a repeater in space. Receives the modulated RF carriers
in its uplink (earth-to-space) frequency spectrum, amplifies these carriers,
and retransmits them back to earth in the downlink (space-to-earth)
frequency spectrum.

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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A Basic Satellite System

 Earth Station (Rx) : Processes the modulated radio frequency(RF) carrier to

the baseband signal.

Most commercial communications satellites today utilize a 500 MHz

bandwidth on the uplink and 500MHz bandwidth on the downlink.
The most widely used frequency spectrum is the 6/4-GHz band, with an uplik
of 5.725 to 7.705 GHz and a downlink of 3.4 to 4.8 GHz.

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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Earth Station

 The communication is established to the satellite through earth station. The earth
station can be located on the ship at the sea, or it can be located on the space craft
or actually on the earth.
 The location of the earth station is decided depending upon the ease of control of
satellite and the function of the satellite.
 The type of earth station depends upon the
(a) function of the station, (b) type of service, (c)frequency bands used,
(d) transmitters, (e) receiver and (f) antenna characteristics.
 The four major subsystems of any earth station are, receiver, antenna, transmitter and
tracking equipment.

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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Earth Station

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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Earth Station

 The baseband signal is applied to the encoder. Encoder converts the format ready for
modulation. The carrier is modulated by the encoded baseband signal.
 The modulated carrier is then upconverted to the uplink frequency of the satellite. The
amplifier then amplifies this signal to high power level, ready for transmission.
 A diplexer is used which is a passive (RF) filter component with three ports. It enables the
sharing of a common antenna between two distinct frequency bands.
 From the satellite, the signal is then passed through the polarization feed of the antenna.
This received signal is of different frequency (downlink frequency) and is very small in
amplitude. This signal is amplified by the low noise amplifier.
 It is then down converted to the intermediate frequency by the down converter. This signal
is then demodulated and decoded to get baseband signal.

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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Transmultiplexing

 Transmultiplexing is a method which combines many independent digital signals into a

single complex signal transmitted by a single communication channel. Properly designed,
it provides perfect reconstruction of source signals from a complex signal.
 With the advent of digital electronics and computers, many earth stations have begun to
use digital transmission to improve satellite capacity over analog transmission.
 Digital transmission permits integration of information in various forms. Analog information
such as speech and visual signals can be converted to digital form and thereby combined
with data for transmission, switching, processing and retrieval.
 The data integrity is guaranteed by a set of synthesis and analysis filters banks with integer
elements. Filters banks with only `zeros' and `ones' ensure data integrity with minimal
computing power.

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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Review Questions

 Ques.1: Explain satellite communication and why is it necessary?

In general terms, a satellite is a smaller object that revolves around a larger
object in space. For example, moon is a natural satellite of earth.
We know that Communication refers to the exchange (sharing) of information
between two or more entities, through any medium or channel. In other words, it
is nothing but sending, receiving and processing of information.
If the communication takes place between any two earth stations through a
satellite, then it is called as satellite communication. In this communication,
electromagnetic waves are used as carrier signals. These signals carry the
information such as voice, audio, video or any other data between ground and
space and vice-versa.

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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Review Questions

The following two kinds of propagation are used earlier for communication up to some
distance.
Ground wave propagation − Ground wave propagation is suitable for frequencies up
to 30MHz. This method of communication makes use of the troposphere conditions of
the earth.
Sky wave propagation − The suitable bandwidth for this type of communication is
broadly between 30–40 MHz and it makes use of the ionosphere properties of the
earth.
The maximum hop or the station distance is limited to 1500KM only in both ground wave
propagation and sky wave propagation. Satellite communication overcomes this
limitation. In this method, satellites provide communication for long distances, which is well
beyond the line of sight.

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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Review Questions

 Since the satellites are located at certain height above earth, the communication
takes place between any two earth stations easily via satellite. So, it overcomes the
limitation of communication between two earth stations due to earth’s curvature.

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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Review Questions

 Ques.2: What are the pros and cons of a satellite communication

system?
Pros and Cons of Satellite Communication
Following are the advantages of using satellite communication:
1. Area of coverage is more than that of terrestrial systems
2. Each and every corner of the earth can be covered
3. Transmission cost is independent of coverage area
4. More bandwidth and broadcasting possibilities

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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Review Questions

Following are the disadvantages of using satellite communication −

1. Launching of satellites into orbits is a costly process.
2. Propagation delay of satellite systems is more than that of conventional
terrestrial systems.
3. Difficult to provide repairing activities if any problem occurs in a satellite
system.
4. Free space loss is more
5. There can be congestion of frequencies.

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.
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Review Questions

 Ques.3: What are the applications of satellite communication? Or, Name the services
provided by Satellite communication.
Satellite communication plays a vital role in our daily life. Following are the applications of
satellite communication −
1. Radio broadcasting and voice communications.
2. TV broadcasting such as Direct To Home (DTH).
3. Internet applications such as providing Internet connection for data transfer, GPS
applications, Internet surfing, etc.
4. Military applications and navigations.
5. Remote sensing applications.
6. Weather condition monitoring & Forecasting.

Course No: ETE 4217 | Department of Electronics &

Telecommunication Enineering, RUET.