The Advent of Satellite Communication

Satcom Vision and Development of Launch Technologies

Oct. ‘45 - Arthur CLARKE: “Extraterrestrial relays”, Wireless World, p.305
Three manned GEO space station
Oct. ‘54 - John PIERCE: “Telecommunications satellites”
LEO or GEO satellites without man in space
Oct. ‘57 - URSS: “Sputnik mission ”
First artificial satellite (non TLC): 85 kg in Earth orbit
Jul. ‘61 - John. F. KENNEDY: “Policy statement on communications
satellites”
Birth of Satellite Communications
Aug. ‘62 - Law in the U.S.: “Communications Satellite Act”
Birth of COMSAT
Aug. ‘64 - Inter-governmental agreement : “Interim Arrangements for
a Global Commercial Communications Satellite System”
Birth of ICSC and INTELSAT
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 Milestones of Satellite Communications (1)

1958-64: LEO and MEO experiments

• Pre-recorded message transmission
Dec. ‘58 - SCORE (60 kg of payload launched on ATLAS at 190 km perigee -
1500 km apogee)
Oct. ‘60 - COURIER (227 kg, 970-1200 km)
• Passive reflection
Aug. ‘60 - ECHO I (76 kg, 1200-1480 km)
Jan. ‘64 - ECHO II (248 kg, 980-1260 km)
• Telephone and TV transmission
Jul. ‘62 - TELSTAR I (77 kg, 940-5640 km)
Dec. ‘62 - RELAY I (78 kg, 1320-7430 km)
May ‘63 - TELSTAR II (79 kg, 970-10800 km)
Jan. ‘64 - RELAY II (78 kg, 2080-7420 km)

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Milestones of Satellite Communications (2)

1963-64: GEO experiments

Jul. ‘63 - SYNCOM II (39 kg, almost GEO: i=33°)
Aug. ‘64 - SYNCOM III (66 kg)
1965: The first HEO satellite (URSS)
Apr. ‘65 - MOLNIYA I (1020-39450 km, 12 hours)

Clarke’s conception of GEO

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Milestones of Satellite Communications (3)

1965: GEO operational systems

Apr. ‘65 - INTELSAT I (“Early Bird”)
Starts INTELSAT GEOs for intercontinental fixed services
1972 - FIXED CONTINENTAL SERVICES
In the U.S. regional systems start for fixed (continental) services
1982 - INMARSAT GLOBAL SYSTEMS
Fully operational GEO global systems, for mobile maritime service
1988 - FIRST LAND MOBILE SATELLITE SYSTEM
OMNITRACS starts to provide in North America land mobile satellite
messaging and localization services
1991 - ITALSAT (ITALY)
The first satellite with on board processing and multibeam coverage

4
Service Evolution towards
Multimedia/Personal Communications
P
E
R ANYWHERE
S Converge
O at worldwide
N level
ANYTIME
A
L

ANYTYPE ANYVOLUME

MULTIMEDIA
5
 Market Distribution Forecast Years 2005-2010

16%
40% 7% 6%
2%
Mobile 4%
2%
Subscribers 13%
Increments 1%

23%
2% 4% 12%
12%
Fixed 5%
6%
Subscribers 33%
Increments 3%

Source: KPMG
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 Multimedia Satellite Services: Perspective View

BOEING ENTERS
TELEDESIC (4/97)

FIRST IRIDIUM
SATELLITE
LAUNCH (5/97)

WRC-97 REVISES
Ka-BAND (11/97) 1997 FIRST COMMERCIAL
SATELLITE LAUNCH
1998 WRC-95: Ka-FREQUENCIES
(?)
TO LEOs (11/95)
ITALSAT 1996 2002
LAUNCH
CELESTRI (1/91) FCC DEADLINE
MERGES INTO FOR KA BAND
TELEDESIC (5/98)
1991 FILING (9/95)

1995
1999 1992
TELEDESIC
1993 1994 FCC FILING 2001
(3/94)
SPACEWAY
ACTS FCC FILING
LAUNCH (12/93)
(9/93)
2000
ASTROLINK
FOUNDED (7/99)

7
Multimedia/Personal Satellite Services

Rationale
• Global Information Infrastructure (GII) to every individual
• Broadband services
Services
• Global Internet services
• Interactive/multimedia video
• Tele-medicine
• Distance learning
• Interactive home banking/shopping
• Satellite news gathering
• Disaster management
• etc.

8
Main Technologies for Multimedia Satellite Services

On board antennas
Phased and multibeam antenna
• to shape beams for specific footprint
• to focus beams (“hot spots”)
• to steer beams
HPAs and beams forming networks
Reconfigurable output power distribution
• to add flexibility in traffic management
• to improve satellite reliability
Processing satellites
On board processing and inter-satellite links
• to allow single-user routing
• to mix digital traffic typologies
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Satellite Constellation Cost Drivers

 Satellite
• Antenna size
• Number of beams
• Power requirement
• Stabilization
• Lifetime
• Number of satellites
 Launch
• Satellite size
• Altitude
• Orbits type
 Terrestrial system
• Number of gateways
 Operation costs
• PTSN and trunking
• Network coordination and management
• Network maintenance
• Billing and customer services
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Satellite Networks Basic Features

 Favorable attributes of the satellite

• Coverage potentially offered to large regions
• Direct-to-user services
• Promptness of service implementation
• Service and traffic capacity reconfiguration
 Classification of direct-to-user services
• One-way services (i.e. broadcasting)
• Two-way services (i.e. communication)

One-way Two-way
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One-way and Two-way Satellite Topologies:
Transparent vs. Regenerative Repeaters

a) Full coverage antenna and transparent transponder

b) Multibeam: one receiver and one transmitter per beam, connected to a switching matrix

12
Orbits and Frequencies: the Capacity Issue

Low Orbits
• Geostationary-Earth-Orbit (GEO)
• Low-Earth-Orbits: an alternative for high capacity global systems
 Capacity grows with d-2
LEO/GEO capacity advantage is about 362  1300
High Frequencies
• Traditional L band (frequency, f, about 1-2 GHz): low capacity
• New Ka band and beyond (20-30 GHz and higher): high capacity
 Capacity grows with f3
Ka/L capacity advantage is about 203  8000
Low Orbits and High Frequencies
• Combing low orbits and high frequencies potentially provides a
huge advantage
 L-band GEO / Ka-band LEO capacity advantage
is 10 million times

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Capacity Advantage as a Function of Satellite Altitude
Transmission capacity, C, can be expressed as: Cn
where  means “proportional” and
• n is the number of “cells”

n  A 1
n  d2 C  d 2
A  d2 For a given antenna size:
• A is the cell area
•  is the angular width of the antenna beams
• d is the satellite altitude

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Orbit Altitude Trade-offs

As H is reduced we have the following advantages:

 The footprint of each on board antenna spot is reduced

Reducing the footprint (“cell”) brings a larger frequency reuse (with the
inverse of the square of cell radius).

 The free-space loss (FSL) is reduced

Reducing the FSL allows to set less stringent requirements both on board the
satellite and to the user terminal. Reducing the power per channel on board is
a basic factor towards the optimum use of the spectrum (this is analogous to
cellular systems).
To the low power of the terminal the benefits of low consumption and less
radiation hazard are associated.

 The propagation delay is reduced

A short propagation delay allows more complex signal processing to contrast
the channel impairments and/or allows the double-hop via satellite.

15
Capacity Advantage as a Function of Frequency

Transmission capacity, C, can be expressed as: C  B k

where
• B is the available band Bf
• k is the number of times B is reused

kA 1 Cf3

A 2 kf2

  f 1
For a given antenna size:
• A is the cell area
•  is the angular width of the antenna beams

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The Radio Spectrum

17
 Spectral Allocations
Spectrum for non-GEO systems was considered in three World Radio Conferences
(WARC’92, WRC’95 and WRC’97) and by the FCC (1994 and 1997)

 WARC’92:
assigned the band 1610.0-1626.5 MHz (“L band”) and the band
2483.5-2500.0 MHz (“S band”) to LEO services on a primary use
basis worldwide for up-link and down-link, respectively
 FCC (1994):
divided the two band (L and S) and assigned the lower 11.35 MHz
part to CDMA systems (e.g. GLOBALSTAR) and the upper 5.15 MHz
part to TDMA systems (IRIDIUM)
 WRC’95:
took the following main decision:
• the band 1980-2200 MHz was made available for ICO since the year 2000
• bandwidth was allocated for the the non-GEO MSS service in several
frequency bands (from 4 to 30 GHz) (TELEDESIC)

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FCC L/S Band Spectral Allocations to LEOs

 FCC allocated  Bands were split in two and

bandwidth to MSS assigned to systems adopting
TDMA (IRIDIUM) and CDMA
LEO systems in 1994
(GLOBALSAR) separately.

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Spectral Allocations at Ka Band

WRC’97 and FCC-1997

17.8 18.1 18.4 18.6 18.8 19.3 19.7 20.1 20.2 GHz

FS-MS FS-MS
FS-MS FS-MS FSS FS-MS FS-MS FSS
FSS
FSS FSS Space FSS Non GEO-MSS MSS (Reg.2)
FSS ITU (WRC97)
FL Reserch

GEO FSS
Non GEO FSS
FS (Terr.)
FCC (1997)
MSS FL
17.7 18.8 19.3 19.7 20.2 GHz

27.5 28.6 29.1 29.5 29.9 30 GHz

FS-MS FS-MS FSS

FSS-FS-MS
FSS FL Non GEO MSS (Reg.2)
FSS ITU (WRC97)

GEO FSS
Non GEO FSS
FS (Terr.)
FCC (1997)
MSS FL
27.5 28.35 28.6 29.1 29.25 29.5 30 GHz

Legenda: FS = Fixed Services FSS = Fixed Satellite Services Primary allocation No Allocation
MS = Mobile Services FL = Feeder Link Secondary allocation

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Orbit Classifications: General

 Based on the inclination, i,  Based on eccentricity:

over the equatorial plane: • Elliptical
• Equatorial (i=0°) • Circular
• Polar (i=90°)
• Inclined (0°<i<90°)

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Orbit Classifications: Circular Orbits

 Based on the circular orbit altitude, H, over the Earth surface:

• Low-altitude Earth Orbit (LEO): 500 km < H < 1700 km
• Medium-altitude Earth Orbit (MEO): 5000 km < H < 10500 km
• Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO): H = 38500 km

When locating a satellite

we wish to avoid:
• Atmosphere which is still
dense at H< 250 km
• Van Allen Belts:
– internal belt
H1700-5000 km
– external belt
H10000-20000 km

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 Satellite Link Geometry
Main relationships:
 RE 
1) g M  arccos cos(am )   am
 RE  H
DM
 am
2·bM


2) bM   (a m  g M ) H

2
DM sin( g M ) gM
3) 
RE sin(bM )
where:
• H is the satellite altitude
• 2·bM is the maximum nadir angle
• am is the minimum elevation angle
• 2 ·gM is the maximum subtended angle
• DM is the maximum satellite-to-terminal distance (edge of coverage)
• RE = 6378 km is the average Earth radius
23
Subsatellite Tracks

LEO GEO (perfectly stabilized)

HEO Geosynchronus (imperfectly GEO)

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 Orbit Constellations Features
 Coverage
• Need to have a fully deployed constellation for real time services
(e.g.: voice) with full Earth coverage
• Sparse constellations suitable for non real time data services
• To reduce the constellation size coverage of polar regions (lat. >70°)
is generally avoided
• Main parameters for communications services: H, am
 Altitude, H
• H takes into account the need to avoid Van Allen Belts and
atmospheric drag
 Elevation angle, am
• Minimum elevation angle, am, under which the terminal “sees” the
satellite at the coverage border influences constellation size
• A small am, beneficial to reduce constellation size, is however in
conflict with a low probability of obstruction (due to orography, etc.)

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Circular Orbit

Centrifugal Force = Gravitational Force

m(RE  H)( )  mg (
2 2
T
RE
0 RE H
2
)

m = satellite mass (don’t care!!)

g0 = 9.81 m/s2
RE = 6378 km = Earth radius
H = orbital height
T = orbital period

Orbit type Altitude (km) Period (h)

LEO 500-1700 1.5-2
MEO 5000-1700 3.3-6
GEO 35800 24

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 Lower Bound on the Number of Satellites
Circular orbits
S  4RE2 S'  2RE2 (1  cos( g' ))
Earth’s area Pole’s area
am = 70°

S tot  S  2  S'  4RE2 cos( g' )

am = 40°
Area to be covered (service area)

S0  2RE am = 10°
Single satellite coverage area
where  is earth's spherical segment deepness

S’ S0 Satellite

H S tot 2  cos( g' )

g’ nsat  
 S0 1  cos( g m )
RE
gM where gM =f (am,H) and g’=20°

27
GEOs: Visibility from Earth

Coverage provided by three

INTELSAT satellites

28
 Geometrical Characteristics for GEO Links (1)

90
80
70
elevation angle

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
latitude

• Plot shows the maximum elevation • Plot shows the variation of range, R,
angle under which a terminal “sees” from GEO satellite to Earth station with
the satellite as a function of terminal latitude  and relative longitude L
latitude • The maximum value of (R/R0)2 is 1.356
which means a variation of 1.3 dB in
 Free Space Loss
 RE 
•   arcsin cos(am )   am 2
2  RE  H  R 
•    1  0.42  (1  cos( ) cos(L ))
 0
R

29
Geometrical Characteristics for GEO Links (2)

• Figure shows how to rotate the Earth

station antenna around its boresight to
achieve polarization match with a
linearly polarized wave from satellite
• Figure allows, for the angle • Assumes polarization plane of
determination of azimuth, A, transmitted wave perpendicular to
and elevation angle, E, of an orbital plane
Earth station, to point a
GEO satellite
30
 Highly Elliptical Orbits (HEOs)

 HEOs (i = 63.4°) are  Due to very

suitable to provide high apogee,
coverage at high latitudes the satellite is
(including North Pole in very slow along
the northern hemisphere) a large arc

 Satellite handover: all

traffic must be
periodically transferred
from the “setting”
satellite to the “rising”
satellite
 Depending on selected orbit (e.g. Molniya, Tundra,
etc.) two or three satellites are sufficient for
continuous time coverage of the service area.
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HEO Satellites Mechanics

Fixed observer Earth-fixed observer

Accounting for the Earth rotation the tree satellites appear as if they were
an a single track

 Advantages vs. GEO: higher elevation angle, coverage of

high latitude
 Disadvantages vs. GEO: large delay, larger Free Space
Loss, larger number of satellites
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Effects of the Propagation Delay

• In a GEO link, one-way propagation delay is

240 < td < 275 milliseconds,
depending on location of Earth stations.
• Therefore, two-way (circuit) delay is about 500 ms
• Direct effect (psychological) and indirect effect (echo) can impact
on subjective service quality.
• Direct effect pushes the unaware talker to repeat the voice
message, so producing “garbling”.
• Indirect effect is a consequence of the conversion between two-
wire and four-wire connections in telecommunications networks.

33
A Delay-related Problem in GEO Links: Echo

•To reduce echo disturbance,

UIT recommends a maximum
circuit delay of 400 ms.

•This prevents usage of two-hop

GEO communications.

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 Echo Countermeasures

 Echo Suppressor
Based on the “imprecise” assumption
that when “talker A” is talking, “talker B”
is listening, and vice versa.
Not suitable for data transmission
(i.e. computers).

 Echo Canceler
Based on estimation of the echo and its
cancellation with an out-of-phase replica.
Suitable both for voice and for data.

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