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CubeSat Communication System, a New Design Approach

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 Ayman N. Mohi et al | IJCSET(www.ijcset.net) | December 2015 | Vol 5, Issue 12, 417-422

CubeSat Communication System, a New Design

Approach
Ayman N. Mohi, Jabir S. Aziz, Lubab A. Salman
#
Department of Electronic and Communications Engineering, College of Engineering, Al-Nahrain University
PO Box 64040, Baghdad, Iraq

Abstract— Many universities are involved in projects related to 1 W from the space unit. The frequency should be one of the
the design, assembly and operation of nanosatellite (CubeSat) to regulated VHF, UHF or S-Band allocated for CubeSat
increase the experience level of researchers and students. The missions, a beacon signal transmission is necessary, and the
CubeSat is a new concept emerged after year 2000, new minimum information data rate is 1200 b/s. The
standards and regulations were introduced by the different
communication protocol AX.25 was introduced by the
organizations and institutes to control the process of designing,
building and lunching the CubeSats. This paper introduces a new amateur community and is available for free and widely used
design approach for the CubeSat communication system. The for encoding and decoding purposes [1, 2]. Following the
design parameters have been carefully chosen for this purpose. regulations, CubeSats are operating in the low earth orbit
The main microcontroller is an Arduino microcontroller that which allows several universities to develop and place in orbit
communicates with a commercial of-the-shelf transceiver student-designed, built and operated CubeSats by
(RFM22), a half-duplex link which has been designed after investigating a scientifically exciting phenomena [1, 2].
performing the required link budget calculations. The frequency The small size of the CubeSat makes it difficult to find a
chosen for operation is the regulated 435 MHz, with Tx power of ready-made radio transceiver for communications and the
100 mW for the space unit and a data rate of 1200 b/s and 9600
limited surface area restricts the amount of the power
b/s for beacon and payload signals, respectively. The
communication algorithm, beacon and payload encoding and generated from the solar panels, restricting thereby the power
decoding algorithms have been designed using the Arduino available for the communication subsystem. Restrictions on
programming language and a new packet coding technique space, time, and power necessitate that CubeSats incorporate
introduces to increase the communication link reliability. limited payloads, slow communications links, little
redundancy, and minimal information processing capabilities.
Keywords— CubeSat, Communication Subsystem, Terminal The mostly used philosophies of CubeSat design is the use
Node Controller, Nanosatellite, RFM22, KufaSat of standard, easy to use, COTS components designed for non-
space applications [3, 4]. This allows fast and inexpensive
I. INTRODUCTION construction and reduce satellite complexity.
The CubeSat is a nanosatellite with more extreme Based on these limitations, the problem is to design a vital
limitations than other satellites in its class in terms of mass, communication link with the least size and power
power and volume standards. CubeSat volume is restricted to consumption and within the regulation of frequency, transmit
(10 cm3), with a mass of no more than 1.33 kg and commonly power and communication window time.
uses commercial of-the-shelf (COTS) components for its The Solution was a communication algorithm designed to
electronics [1]. Many CubeSats have been built and launched make use of the commercial RFM22 data transceiver
into space. To reduce space junk they are usually placed in combined with the Arduino microcontroller to provide a half-
low earth orbits and fall back to earth within a few weeks or duplex communication link and to implement a new coding
months [2]. The communication system is one major limiting algorithm for payload and beacon data handling.
factor for CubeSats. During the previous years a lot of The contribution is manifested in the algorithm design of
CubeSats have been designed and lunched into orbits. There the transceiver combined with the microcontroller as a system
are common features and some differences between these Terminal Node Controller (TNC) to provide a software
communication systems. defined communication system, where the system parameters
Based on the information collected from some CubeSats can be changed by software without modifying hardware.
like $50SAT, PW-Sat, Goliat, SwissCube-1 and others the The design of the communication and coding algorithms
common used choices of regulations and communication plays an important role in the success of communication
system parameters are as follows: the regulated UHF band is process. For this reason a modification has been done on the
the most used in terms of frequency and the 1U CubeSat in communication algorithm based on ideas presented by the
terms of size, amateur band is the most used frequency band. RadioHead Packet Radio library which is available online to
This will aid in the choice of the system parameters as the enhance the algorithm design [5].
common used choices by more than one team are the safest The ideas presented in this paper will aid in the design of
option to avoid unexpected results [1, 2]. the communication system of KufaSat which is an Iraqi
The most important limitation of the communication student satellite project sponsored by the University of Kufa
system for the CubeSat is that transmit power must not exceed and it will be one the first Iraqi satellites to fly in space [6, 7].

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II. DESIGN REQUIREMENTS III. COMMUNICATION SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

Based on the collected information, regulations and The suggested communication system architecture was
standards, a set of requirements must be identified before implemented using COTS components. The RFM22
proceeding to the design process. These requirements are as transceiver was chosen as the main data transceiver controlled
follows [8, 9, 10]: by an Arduino Microcontroller with an integrated SD card
1. Since the CubeSat standard is defined for educational system and a group of sensors to take the measurements. The
purposes, where budget is kept to minimum, and mission block diagram in Fig.1 illustrates the main parts of the
development time to be short, most of the Cubesat communication system.
missions launched have chosen the amateur band as a The adopted solution as we can observe that the uplink,
practical choice. Following this criteria, the frequency downlink and the beacon signals share a common data link in
chosen for the uplink and downlink is the UHF band a half-duplex regime at the frequency of (435 MHz). The
operating at frequency of (435 MHz). advantages gained from this design is to reduce the size,
2. CubeSats are typically launched in Low Earth Orbits power consumption, cost and complexity of the total system,
(between 300 and 700 Km above earth surface). by adopting a time sharing principle to keep the system
According to KufaSat, the orbit altitude is 600 km low efficient. Other CubeSat communication systems incorporate
earth orbit (LEO). a separated beacon board for transmitting the beacon signal
3. The dimensions are according to the regulations and the and also some of them chose 2 frequency bands (VHF, UHF
choice of KufaSat to be 1U CubeSat (10 x 10 x 10 cm3), or S-Band) for uplink and downlink. Those designs require
so the communication unit inside CubeSat must not more power, larger in size and more costly compared to our
exceed 10 x 10 cm2 to fit in the Cube. design
4. The uplink and downlink data rate should be at least
1200bps and the preferred data rate is 9600bps for
payload data. IV. COMMUNICATION SYSTEM PROTOTYPE
5. The modulation scheme is FSK. Today, CubeSats have evolved to the point where many of
6. Designing and implementing a data packet encoding and the encoders, modulators, filters, and decoders used by these
decoding algorithms. communication systems can be implemented in software to
7. A new algorithm to generate an audible CW Morse overcome the persistent needs for increasing data rates and to
coded beacon signal. make it easy to alter the system specifications without
8. The bit error rate must be less than10-4. modifying the system hardware.
9. The transmission power is 100 mW (or 20 dBm).
10. The payload information is chosen to be the information To increase our design flexibility to match any future
collected from several sensors (temperature, humidity, requirements for KufaSat, the suggested communication
brightness, magnetic field and tilt sensor). The choice of system is software configurable in terms of an important
information sensor is just to prove the concept, and these system parameters including: Tx power, data rate, modulation
information sensors will be replaced by other space- scheme and frequency of operation. Fig.2 shows the
qualified equivalent and other payload sensors such as connection among the basic elements of the proposed design.
video camera.

Communication SubSystem
OBC
Microcontroller
Transceiver Unit (RFM 22)
Unit (Arduino)

Commands
Memory (SD
LNA Demodulator Decoder Card)

Switch

A/D Sensors Sub-Systems

Amplifier Modulator Encoder

System
BUS

A/D Payload
Beacon

Fig. 1: A block diagram of the proposed communication system.

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Fig. 2: Schematic of the proposed design.

A. The Microcontroller Unit regulator has been chosen as a low-drop voltage regulator able
The microcontroller board chosen is Arduino board as the to provide up to 800 mA of output current.
main TNC and it has been programmed using the Arduino
programming language based on C language. The Arduino E. SD-Card Memory Unit
board communicates with the computer through a USB The communication time between the CubeSat and the
interface. ground station is limited to a communication window of
Due to size limitations the Arduino Nano has been chosen approximately 5 minutes, therefore the SD Card unit has been
for our CubeSat communication system and the Arduino added to temporary store payload data when the CubeSat is
Mega for the ground station since there is no size limitations not transmitting to the ground station.
in the ground station.
The complete prototype system is shown in Fig.3 where it
B. Transceiver Unit can be seen that the whole apace unit board size is no more
The RFM22 is low cost ISM transceiver module, and offers than 10 x 10 cm2 in area.
advanced radio features including continuous frequency
coverage from 240–930 MHz and adjustable output power of
up to +20 dBm, the communication between the Arduino and
RFM22 is done by 4-wire SPI (Serial peripheral interface)
connection [11]. The wide operating voltage range of 1.8–3.6
V and low current consumption (85 mA max. TX current and
0.01µA for standby) make the RFM22 an ideal solution for
battery powered applications.
C. Level Shifter Circuit
Since the communication between the Arduino and the
RFM22 is done by 4-PIN SPI and the operating voltage of the
Arduino pins are 5 V while that of the RFM22 Pins is 3.3 V,
the need for a voltage level shifter emerged for which, the
74HC4050 IC has been chosen since it is widely used in
HIGH-to-LOW level shifting applications.
D. Voltage Regulator
Due to the fact that the Arduino 3.3 V internal voltage Fig. 3: Complete prototype system.
regulator is capable of providing up to 50 mA only which is
insufficient for our design because the RFM22 (operating at
MAX current) requires 85 mA of TX current, the LD1117

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V. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT sequence, and decoding is just done in the same way. Table.1
The algorithm for encoding payload data, controlling the illustrates the Morse code characters representation.
different communication units and generating the beacon
signal has been devolved using Arduino programing language
based on C language. It has been developed in a way to make
the system and the control of its parameters flexible and re- Start
configurable.
The ideas adopted in the designed system are readily seen in
the suggested software. The major advantages of this
Initialization process
approach are its flexibility and compatibility with future Identifying the constants,
requirements as illustrated bellow: variables and Timer
• A single communications channel shared for the beacon,
downlink and uplink signals leading to a reduction in the
RFM22 Initialization
size, cost and complexity of the system. Setting the Frequency,
• A timing protocol is introduced to control the Modulation and TX power
information flow over the communication channel.
• A new representation for the Morse coded beacon
Timer = default
signals Orbital period
• A new packet coding technique for the payload data
transmission.
• Increasing communication system flexibility by Recording and
saving the Payload
introducing software-defined system parameters such as information
Tx power, modulation, frequency and data rate. This
makes the system capable of matching any future
requirement by KufaSat such us increasing data rate,
changing the frequency of operation, flexible YES
transmission power handling and so on while Timer = Updated Periodically checking
maintaining the same designed hardware. Orbital period for Uplink confirmation
The details of the communication algorithm are shown in
Fig.4.An explanation of the beacon generation and payload
NO
data coding is given below.
Beacon Signal
Payload Data Morse code
A. Beacon Generation
generation
The Morse beacon signal in the suggested design is
generated using the Arduino microcontroller and transmitted Continuous
with the RFM22 transceiver unit by representing the dots and Transmission by
RFM 22
dashes by zeros and ones.
Morse code characters are all of length six or less, and each
element is either a dot or a dash, so it would seem that we can
store the pattern in six bits or less. Let’s say that dots are zero
NO
If Timer = 0
and dashes are one, and store them so the first element gets
stored in the least significant bit, and the next in the second
most, and so on. YES
The only trick is knowing when there are no elements left, Transmission by
because otherwise we can’t tell (for example) K (-.-) from C (- RFM 22 for 5 minute
.-.). To do that, we store a single extra one after all the other
elements are taken care of. Then, when we are looping, we do
the following, if the pattern is equal to one, we are done END
(that’s our guard bit). If not, we look at the least significant
digit. If it is a zero, we have a dot, if we have a one, it’s a dash.
We then get rid of that element (by dividing by two, or
shifting right) and repeat. Fig. 4: A flowchart of the communication algorithm.
Each character takes only a single byte (8 bits) to store its
pattern while the most significant bit is always zero till the
guard bit which is one and the reaming bits are the Morse

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Table 1: Morse code representation. VI. IMPLEMENTATION TESTS AND RESULTS

Charact Decimal Binary Characte Decimal Binary The designed system has undergone many tests to ensure its
er Value Value r Value Value compatibility with the different circumstances and issues that
. 106 1101010 Q 27 11011 may happen during its life time in space, the input and output
, 115 1110011 R 10 1010 signals are measured and recorded while different
configuration parameters have been modified by software.
? 76 1001100 S 8 1000
The results were viewed using the serial window on a
/ 41 101001 T 3 11 laptop to view transmitted and received information and check
A 6 110 U 12 1100 if any errors took place. The serial port number 3 was
B 17 10001 V 24 11000 assigned for space segment and serial port 5 for the ground
C 21 10101 W 14 1110 station segment.
Fig.5 shows the serial window of starting transmission
D 9 1001 X 25 11001
when no uplink is received yet and Fig.6 shows the result after
E 2 10 Y 29 11101 the first uplink signal received. The CubeSat responds by
F 20 10100 Z 19 10011 sending the information viewed in the previous window in
G 11 1011 1 62 111110 Fig.5 and then the Morse beacon characters are re-transmitted
H 16 10000 2 60 111100 after the uplink command vanishes.
Fig.7 is the ground station reception confirmation, the same
I 4 100 3 56 111000
information has been received and decoded without missing or
J 30 11110 4 48 110000 errors in data values.
K 13 1101 5 32 100000 The spectrum of the received signal is shown in Fig.8
L 18 10010 6 33 100001 which indicates a successful reception at 434 MHz and also
M 7 111 7 35 100011
after changing the frequency to 435 MHz in Fig.9. This is one
of our design main advantages of being software configurable.
N 5 101 8 39 100111
O 15 1111 9 47 101111
P 22 10110 0 63 111111

B. Payload Information Coding Protocol

The important payload data is encoded in a packet format
and transmitted and received as packetized messages. The
suggested software provides functions for sending and
receiving messages of up to 255 octets on any frequency
supported by the RFM22, in a range of predefined data rates
and frequency deviations. Frequency can be set with 312Hz
precision to any frequency from 240.0MHz to 960.0MHz.
All messages sent and received conform to the packet
format in Table.2:
Table 2: Payload packet format. Fig. 5: Starting transmission serial window (serial port
3).
PREAMBLE SYNC HEADER LENGTH DATA CRC

2 0-255
4 Octets 4 Octets 1 Octet 2 Octet
Octets Octets

The coded messages are unaddressed, reliable,

retransmitted, acknowledged messages. The
acknowledgement process has the disadvantage of being time
consuming but it’s necessary to avoid any information loss,
and there is no need for addressing process since we have only
one transmitter sending to another.
The Preamble and the SYNC Octets are responsible for the
synchronization process in the data layer by identifying the
start of each frame.
Fig. 6: Uplink signal received window (serial port 3).

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 Ayman N. Mohi et al | IJCSET(www.ijcset.net) | December 2015 | Vol 5, Issue 12, 417-422

VII. CONCLUSIONS
The frequency chosen for operation is the 435 MHz
amateur frequency and a Tx power of 100 mW with FSK as a
modulation scheme and a data rate of 1200 bps and 9600 bps
for beacon and payload operation respectively. The choice of
using COTS components in the designed and implemented
communication system makes it easy to modify and upgrade
the system components to fit any future requirements and
applications.
The overall size of the communication system after
implementation is (7 x 9.5 x 1 cm3) which conforms to the
standards and regulations of the CubeSat.
The system software was divided into three primary
algorithms which are the communication, beacon and payload
encoding and decoding algorithms and the three algorithms
are combined together to form the complete system algorithm.
Fig. 7: Data received on ground station (serial port 5). The timing approach is proposed to minimize the possibility
of losing data and to keep the cycle of communication aligned
during the CubeSat passes over the ground station.
The system was designed as a software-defined
communication system in terms of frequency, Tx power,
modulation and data rate parameters to adaptable to many
other CubeSat designs.

REFERENCES
[1] The CubeSat Program, “Cubesat Design Specification”, California
Polytechnic State University, Regulations and Standards Document,
2009. Available at http://www.cubesat.org/ [online]
[2] Muri, P. & McNair, J. “A Survey of Communication Subsystems for
Intersatellite Linked Systems and CubeSat Missions”, Journal of
Communications, Vol. 7, No. 4, April 2012.
[3] Klofas, B. Leveque, K. & Anderson, J. “A Survey of CubeSat
Communication Systems”, In Proceedings of the 5th Annual CubeSat
Developers Workshop. San Luis Obispo, California. April, 2008.
Fig. 8: Received signal spectrum at 434 MHz. [4] Klofas, B. Leveque, K. & Anderson, J. “A Survey of CubeSat
Communication Systems”, Presented on Annual CubeSat Developers
Workshop, 2013.
[5] Evans, B. “Beginning Arduino Programming, Writing Code for the
Most Popular Microcontroller Board in the World”, 2011.
[6] Mahdi, M. C, “Gravity Gradient Stabilization of Nano Satellite Using
Fuzzy Logic Controller”, M.Sc. in Science in Physics, Kufa University,
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[7] Mahdi, M. C., “Orbit Design and Simulation for KufaSat Nano-
Satellite”, Artificial Satellite, Vol. 50, No. 4 - 2015.
[8] Chris Noe, “Design and Implementation of the Communications
Subsystem for the Cal Poly CP2 Cubesat Project”, Computer
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[9] Schroer, M. P. “A Cubesat Communications System Design, Test, and
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[10] Traussnig, W. “Design of a Communication and Navigation Subsystem
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Fig. 9: Received signal spectrum at 435 MHz. Course Space Science Karl Franzens University of Graz, Graz, Austria,
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[11] Hope Micro-electronics CO., LTD, “RFM22 Specification Data sheet,
PDF Document”.

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