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Satellite Communication - Introduction

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.
Soviet Union had launched the world's first artificial satellite named, Sputnik 1 in 1957.
Nearly after 18 years, India also launched the artificial satellite named, Aryabhata in
1975.

Need of Satellite Communication

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.
Since the satellites locate 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.

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.
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The frequency with which, the signal is sent into the space is called as Uplink
frequency. Similarly, the frequency with which, the signal is sent by the transponder is
called as Downlink frequency. The following figure illustrates this concept clearly.

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.
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.
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.
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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.
Following are the advantages of using satellite communication:
 Area of coverage is more than that of terrestrial systems
 Each and every corner of the earth can be covered
 Transmission cost is independent of coverage area
 More bandwidth and broadcasting possibilites
Following are the disadvantages of using satellite communication −
 Launching of satellites into orbits is a costly process.
 Propagation delay of satellite systems is more than that of conventional terrestrial
systems.
 Difficult to provide repairing activities if any problem occurs in a satellite system.
 Free space loss is more
 There can be congestion of frequencies.

Applications of Satellite Communication

Satellite communication plays a vital role in our daily life. Following are the applications
of satellite communication −
 Radio broadcasting and voice communications
 TV broadcasting such as Direct To Home (DTH)
 Internet applications such as providing Internet connection for data transfer, GPS
applications, Internet surfing, etc.
 Military applications and navigations
 Remote sensing applications
 Weather condition monitoring & Forecasting

Geosynchronous Satellite and Geosynchronous Orbit (GSO)

A geosynchronous satellite is a communication satellite that has an orbital period same
as the period of rotation of the earth. Hence, it appears to be permanently in the same
area of the sky at a particular time each day when viewed by an observer on the earth.
The orbit in which a geosynchronous satellite is placed is called geosynchronous orbit
(GSO). Its orbital period is the sidereal day, i.e. 23 hours 56 minutes 4 seconds and its
orbital altitude is 35,800 km.
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Geostationary Satellite and Geostationary Orbit (GEO)

A circular geosynchronous satellite which is placed at 0o angle to the equatorial plane is
called a geostationary satellite. It appears to be stationary at a fixed position of the sky
throughout the day by a ground observer.
The orbit in which a geostationary satellite is placed is called a geostationary orbit (GEO).
It is placed 35, 800 km above the earth’s equator and has an orbital period equal to the
sidereal day.

Uses and Examples of Geosynchronous Satellites

Uses

 Voice and data communication

 Internet
 Broadcasting cable TV and radio signals
Examples

 Raduga 29 of Russia
 Astra 1C of India
 MEASAT 2 of Malaysia
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Uses and Examples of Geostationary Satellites

Uses

 Weather reports about a particular region

 Weather forecasting
 Terrestrial reports of a geographical area
 Spy networks
Examples

 Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GEOS) of USA

 INSAT of India
 Himawari of Japan
 Fengyun of China
 Meteostat of Europe

Earth Station also known as the ground station is an arrangement of various

equipment on the surface or atmosphere of the earth that is used to transmit
or receive signals in the form of voice, video, or data through single or
multiple satellites. It is sometimes called the earth terminal and is a part of
the ground segment of the satellite network.
The earth station is an earth-based terminal that can be present on a ship or
an aircraft as well. The earth station is not a single equipment entity as
various major elements constitute it. It is to be noted here that the design of
the earth station depends on requirements as well as the quality of service.

Introduction

In today’s developing world, satellite communication has emerged as a very

popular technique to enable communication via satellites due to their feature
and offered advantages. Basically, irrespective of the environment, satellite
communication allows the data transmission and reception from any part of
the earth station to any other part with quality and reliability. Due to these
reasons, satellite communication has gained huge popularity.

As we have discussed recently that satellite communication allows the

communication between any point of the earth station to the other point.
Thus, a satellite may communicate with multiple ground stations parallelly.
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We all are aware of the fact that in today’s world satellite has become a
crucial element for communication. Like from any visual information transfer
to any worldwide data communication, from various data services to
televising of international events, everything has been made easy with the
help of satellites.

However, it is also a fact that only the presence of satellites in space has not
made such activities possible. This is so because when data is transmitted
from an end then it requires a proper receiving unit so that it can be utilized
according to the requirement. Thus, the ground segment of the satellite
network is important and the earth station is a very crucial part of it.

Types of Earth Station

The earth station is a crucial part of satellite communication because one

earth station transmits the signal and another earth station receives it.

The three major categories in which an earth station is divided are as follows:
 Transmit type: This type of earth station is the one that is only designed to
transmit the signals towards the satellite and has no arrangement of signal
reception.
 Receive type: The type of earth station that simply performs the function
of reception of signals coming from satellite and cannot transmit the
signal to the satellite in space is known as receive type earth station.
 Transmit-Receive type: The earth station unit that solely handles two-
way communication i.e., sends the signal to the satellite and also receives
the signal coming from the satellite is known as transmit-receive type
earth station.
As we have already discussed in the beginning the earth station is not a single
entity but an arrangement of various elements that combinedly operate as a
single unit.

Thus, the subsystems of the earth station, in general, are as follows:

1. Antenna (generally reflector type)
2. Feed system for sending and receiving radio frequency carrier
3. Tracking equipment that helps to keep the satellite in the operating region
of the antenna.
However, these are the general equipments used for the operation but are
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not the only ones because there are some factors on which the requirement
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of equipment at the earth station depends. These are as follows:

So, we can say, earth stations are designed as per the service requirement
and quality of service required.

Block Diagram of Earth Station

The design and layout of the earth station are not that critical but are crucial.
The reason for this is that the designing must be done in a focussed way so
that the station must be able to receive even very weak signals as well as
process them to get the actual information. So, designing the earth station is
an important considerable factor.

 It is to be noted here that the earth station should maintain the required
signal quality and its design must be cost-effective and reliable.
The whole unit of the earth station is divided into two parts, one is the RF
terminal and the other is the baseband terminal. The RF terminal includes an
antenna, upconverter, downconverter, high power amplifier, and low noise
amplifier. While the baseband terminal includes, encoder, decoder,
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modulator, and demodulator. However, these two parts are separated by a

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sufficient distance and are connected via IF lines. The RF terminal must be
present close to the antenna unit to reduce the losses and attenuation due to
the transmission line that connects the antenna with the RF equipment.

The figure below represents the block diagram representation of the

transmit-receive type earth station:

The fundamental operation of the earth station during transmission is to

receive the signal coming from the terrestrial network and multiplex them
together to link them to the satellite in order to transmit. While during
the reception, it must receive the signals coming from the satellite and route
it to the respective destination with the help of a terrestrial network.
Initially, the received baseband or message signal from the source is
modulated with an appropriate carrier signal then it is upconverted to the
desired frequency level. The achieved signal is then amplified and
transmitted via antenna through feed system. However, the signal coming
from the satellite is received by the receiving antenna and is provided to the
feed system where required polarization is introduced. Also, the feed system
maintains isolation between transmitted and received signals so as to reduce
the chances of signal mixing.

So, the signal received by the feed system is fed to a low noise amplifier then
is down-converted to the IF range and further demodulated and provided to
the terrestrial network.

In the block diagram, we have seen units of the tracking system and drive
motors. The tracking system keeps the track record of the satellite in space
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and is controlled by drive motors and the power supply.

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The antenna unit mostly used in earth stations is reflector antenna, more
specifically parabolic reflector, due to the reason that these offer high gain
and low sidelobe characteristics.
It is to be noted here that with the interconnection of large traffic nodes, the
designing complexity of the earth station increases. In the earth station,
the G/T ratio is a crucial parameter that characterizes it. It is the ratio of
antenna gain to the system noise temperature. A large earth station uses
large antennas thus can manage various telephone signals and television
channels. While a small earth station holds the ability to carry only one voice
or TV signals.

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