SystemConsiderations

There are four important factors that influence the design of any satellite
communica
tions system: incremental growth, interim operations, (satellite) replenishment
options,
and end-to-end system implementation.
9.4.1 IncrementalGrowth
The 1964 decision by the Interim Communications Satellite Committee (soon to
becometheInternational Telecommunications Satellite Organization INTELSAT a few
years later) to select a GEO satellite system rather than a 12-satellite MEO
system that
was supported by major entities on both sides of the north Atlantic at that time
was
driven by incremental growth plans as well as by launcher technology. The primary
international traffic route was across the Atlantic Ocean, followed (a long way
second)
by the Indian Ocean region, and (an even longer way third, at that time) by the
Pacific
Ocean region. The system could be grown incrementally with a GEO architecture. The
f
irst GEO satellite– early bird– was placed over the Atlantic Ocean region in 1965.
For the first decade of operations, new satellites were launched into the Atlantic
Ocean
region to replace satellites that had been operating there. The satellites being
replaced
were moved to the Indian Ocean region and the satellites replaced in the Indian
Ocean
region were moved to the Pacific Ocean region. It was not until INTELSAT VII that
Intelsat specifically designed a satellite for the Pacific Ocean region from
scratch. This
approach to incremental growth served Intelsat well. By comparison, the new LEO
and
MEOmobileservicesystemsnowinoperationrequireallofthesatellitesto beinopera
tion before full operations can begin. However, most of the LEO andMEOsystemoper
ators developed interim operations plans where a reduced number of satellites could
524
9 NGSOSatelliteSystems
provide useful service. We will now look at other system considerations that can
affect
the design of the satellite network in other respects.
9.4.2 Interim Operations
Interim operations for LEOandMEOsystemsservetwofunctions:theycanbringaser
vice onlinegradually,introducingthetechnologytothemarketwhileteethingproblems
are sorted out; and they can act as fall back plans should multiple satellite
failures occur
over a short period. Nearly all of the LEO and MEO systems undertook such interim
operations. Orbcommbegancommercialoperationswithlessthanhalfofits36-satellite
constellation inplace,thusbecomingthefirstcommercialLEOsystemtoestablisharev
enue stream. Globalstar began with 32 out of the planned 48-satellite constellation
and
O3Bplanstostartoperationswitheightsatellitesspaced45°apartinanequatorialorbit.
Iridium, since it uses ISLs to complete the network, required all 66 satellites to
be avail
able before it began beta testing in November 1998. SpaceX launched MicroSat-2A and
2B to test the ISLs and phased array antennas to be used in their planned NGSO con
stellation of up to 7500 spacecraft (skyrocket 2018c). SpaceX is also planning to
launch
a newconstellation of satellites that operate in V-band (40–75GHz)(FCC2018b).Some
details are given in Table 9.5.
 The technical planning for interim operations includes relaxing the number of
satel
lites visible to any user at any particular time, which lowers the number of
satellites
required to complete the constellation. The elevation angle minimum for users is
also
usually lowered,thegapsbetweenoperationalsatellitesinthesameplanearemadesym
metrical, and the orbits adjusted if possible to maximize coverage over those parts
of
the day when user service requests are highest. Most LEO constellations have at
least
four satellites per plane and multiple spacecraft launches are used in the
constellation
Table 9.5 SpaceXV-bandproposal
LEOconstellation
Initial deployment
Parameter
Orbital planes
Satellites/Orb. plane
Altitude (km)
Inclination
32
50
1150
53°
Final deployment
32
50
1100
53.8°
8
50
1130
74°
5
75
1275
81°
6
75
1325
70°
VLEOconstellation
Initial deployment
Parameter
Satellites per altitude
Altitude (km)
Inclination
Final deployment
2547
345.6
53°
2478
340.8
48°
2493
335.9
42°
Source: Data extracted from (FCC 2018b).
9.4 SystemConsiderations
525
Table 9.6 Primary and replenishment launchers for the NGSO systems
LEO/MEOsystem
Primary launchers
(numberperlaunch)
Secondary/replenishment
launchers (number perlaunch)
Iridium NEXT
Globalstar-2
O3B
OneWeb
SpaceX LEO
SpaceX VLEO
OrbcommOG2
SpaceX Falcon 9 (10)
Soyuz 2-1ab (6)
Soyuz 2-1ab (6)
Soyuz 2-1zc (32–36)
SpaceX Falcon 9 (12–24)
SpaceX Falcon 9 (24–36)
SpaceX Falcon 9 (11)
Dnepr (2)a
d
d
Virgin Galactic (1)e
d
d
d
aDnepr launch site is in Russia
bLaunch site is Kourou
cLaunch sites are Kourou and Kazakhstan
dNo replenishment launcher announced
e39 replenishment launches have been announced, using the air-launched Launcher 1
build-up. ASpaceXFalcon9rocketcarried11Orbcommsatellitesintoorbit(Orbcomm
2018), A Soyuz II carried six Globalstar satellites, and a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
carried
10 Iridium Next into orbit. Most NGSOsystems populate their constellation with
more
spacecraft than are needed at any one time and so, when a satellite fails in
service, there
is usually an in-orbit spare to take its place. If more than one satellite fails
in a plane,
additional satellites must be launched to replenish the system.
9.4.3 ReplenishmentOptions
Launching five or more satellites to replace one failed satellite makes little
economic
sense. As a result, the LEO service providers may use smaller rockets to replenish
their
system. With the new very low earth orbit (VLEO), LEO, MEO, and other NGSO con
stellations that have up to 4000+ satellites, however, it is more likely that no
single satel
lite replenishment will be contemplated in most cases. The full system complement
of
satellites will contain several “surplus” spacecraft in each of the orbital
planes, which
will make it relatively simple to replace a failed satellite with a spare
satellite in orbit.
Table 9.6 lists the primary and replenishment launchers proposed to be used by the
 NGSOsystems.
9.4.4 End-to-EndSystemImplementation
A communications system can be part of a larger network (e.g., just providing the
long distance portion of the connection) or it can provide the full end-to-end
system
implementation, from user to user. AT&T and Intelsat, when they were first set up,
did
not provide end-to-end service: AT&T provided long-distance capacity for local
tele
phone companies and Intelsat provided satellite capacity for entities such as AT&T
to
carry their international traffic. Neither company interacted directly with the
end-user.
Indeed, at that time, there were specific laws or protocols that prevented this
from
happening. These laws no longer exist, but at that time, they had a significant
impact
on the early satellite systems, influencing the systems design in a number of
ways.
526
9 NGSOSatelliteSystems
The systems architecture of an NGSO constellation will be heavily influenced by
the
decision on whether or not to provide service directly to the end-user. It will
also be
impactedbythedecisiononwhetherornottoincludeestablishedtelephonecompanies
in the delivery of the service. By their very nature, mobile satellite systems
have com
mitted to serve the end-user directly. However, different approaches have been
taken
with regard to including established telephone companies. Two examples of organiza
tions that took opposite decisions are Globalstar and Iridium. Globalstar elected
not to
bypass existing telephone companies while Iridium did. These decisions led to a
very
different architecture for the two systems, which will be discussed in the next
section.