KEPLERS LAWS

It is generally applicable to any two bodies in space which interact through gravitation. The more
massive of the two bodies is called primary, and the other secondary or satellite.
Keplers first law- states that the path followed by a satellite around the primary will be an
ellipse.
Keplers second law- states that for equal time intervals a satellite will sweep out equal areas in
its orbital plane. An important consequence of this law is that the satellite will take longer time to
travel a given distance when it is farther away from earth.
Keplers third law- states that the square of time period of orbit is proportional to cube of mean
distance between the two bodies. The importance of this law is that it shows there is a fixed
relationship between period and size of the orbit which is in particular applied for the case of
Geostationary orbit.

ORBITAL PARAMETERS

In general, satellite orbit is not a circle, but an ellipse. The line extending across the widest part
of the ellipse is called the major axis; it passes through both foci. The line extending across the
narrow part of the ellipse, perpendicular to the major axis, is called the minor axis.
The point on an elliptical orbit at which the satellite is closest to the Earth is called the perigee of
the orbit. The distance from perigee to the center of the Earth is denoted by r p. The point at which
the satellite is furthest from the Earth is called the apogee and the distance from the center of the
Earth to the apogee is denoted by r a. The perigee and apogee lie at opposite ends of the major
axis.
The main two elements that define the shape and size of the ellipse are
1. Semi-major axis (a): sum of apogee and perigee distances divided by two.
a=

r a+r p
2

2. Eccentricity (e): gives the shape of the ellipse, describing how much it is elongated compared
to circle. It varies between 0 (corresponding to a circle) and 1 (corresponding to an infinitely thin
ellipse).
e=

r ar p
r a +r p

Two elements which define the orientation of the orbital plane are3. Inclination angle (i): The angle between orbital plane and earths equatorial plane measured
at the ascending node.
Ascending node is the point where the orbit crosses the equatorial plane going from south to
north. Descending node is the point where the orbit crosses equatorial plane going from north to
south. Line of nodes is the line joining ascending and descending nodes through the center of the
earth.

4. Right ascension of ascending node (): Angle measured eastward in the equatorial plane
from the line of Aries ( line) to the ascending node where first point of Aries/ Vernal or spring
equinox is chosen as a fixed reference in space.
5. Argument of perigee (): Angle from ascending node to perigee measured in the orbital
plane at the earths center in the direction of satellite motion. It gives the rotation of orbits
perigee point relative to orbits line of nodes in the earths equatorial plane.
6. Mean anomaly (M): It gives the position of the satellite in its orbit at a reference time known
as epoch. M is the average value of the angular position of the satellite with reference to the
perigee.

ORBITAL PERTURBATIONS
It is necessary to have an idea about the perturbations to know the lifetime of satellite before it
will tumble down to earth. There are two types of orbital perturbations
1. Gravitational:-which is caused due to non-spherical shape of earth and due to third body
interaction.
2. Non-gravitational:- which includes atmospheric drag, solar-radiation pressure and tidal
friction.

SPREAD SPECTRUM

In spread spectrum bandwidth of transmitted signal is several orders of magnitude greater than
the message signal which modulates the carrier. A pseudo-noise (PN) sequence converts
narrowband signal to wideband noise-like signal before transmission. The power spectral density
of the modulated signal is very low and comparable to that of noise as seen in figure above.
There are two main types of spread spectrum technique-Direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) and Frequency hopping spread spectrum (FH-SS)

Direct sequence spread spectrum (DS-SS)

In DS-SS system, the binary data (narrow band message signal) is multiplied by a very large
bandwidth signal called spreading signal. The spreading signal is a pseudo-noise code sequence
having chip rate much greater than the data rate of message. Each user has its own
pseudorandom codeword which is approximately orthogonal to all other codewords. All users
can transmit simultaneously using the same carrier frequency in DS-SS system.

For detection of message, receiver needs to know the codeword used by corresponding
transmitter. The receiver performs a time correlation operation to detect only the desired message
embedded within the spreaded signal. All other codewords appear as noise due to decorrelation
thus eliminating unwanted messages. Each user operates independently with no knowledge of
other users.

Fig: DSSS-Transmitter

Fig: DSSS-Receiver

Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)/ Frequency-Hopping Code Division Multiple

Access (FH-CDMA)
FHSS is a multiple access scheme in which the carrier frequencies of individual users are varied
in a pseudorandom fashion. Each available frequency band is subdivided into sub-frequencies.
Signals rapidly change ("hop") among these in a pre-determined order. It allows multiple users to
simultaneously occupy the same spectrum at the same time, where each user dwells at a specific
sub-frequency (narrowband channel) at a particular instance of time based on the particular PN

code of that user. If the rate of change of carrier frequency is greater than the symbol rate, then
the it is referred to as fast frequency hopping. If the channel changes at a rate less than or equal
to the symbol rate, it is called slow frequency hopping.
It provides a level of security, especially when large number of channels are used. An unintended
or intercepting receiver that does not know the pseudorandom sequence of frequency slots must
retune rapidly to search for the signal it wishes to intercept. Therefore, interference at a specific
frequency will only affect the signal during that short interval.