Satellite Systems

Uses:
1) Weather forecasting: pictures of earth taken using
infrared or optical imaging, predication of biodiversity – flora
& fauna, hurricanes, fires, demographic data etc.
2) Radio & TV broadcasts
3) Military Satellites for espionage.
4) Navigation (GPS)
5) Global Telephone Backbones
6) Connections for remote places or developing areas.

Footprint
Area on earth where the signals of the satellite can be received.

Elevation angle ε
It is the angle between the center of the satellite beam and the plane
tangential to the earth’s surface.

Inclination angle δ –
It is the angle between the equatorial plane and the plane described by the
satellite orbit.

If, m = mass of the satellite,

R = Radius of the earth (6370 kms.)
r = distance of the satellite to the center of earth
g = acceleration due to gravity (9.81 m/s2)
ω = 2πf, the angular velocity – f being frequency of rotation

mg (R )2 = mrω2
r

R = ( gR2) 1/3
ω2
Propagation Loss
L = [ 4π r f ]2
c

where r = distance between sender and receiver

F = carrier frequency
C = velocity of light.

1) Geo synchronous or Geo stationary earth orbit (GEO)

The Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) was discovered by Arthur C. Clarke at the same
time as he outlined the principles of satellite communication. Clarke calculated that at
35,784 km, the orbital period is exactly 24 hours. This means that if a satellite is placed at
exactly this altitude above Earth's axis of rotation -the equator - it should not drift east or
west at all.

The geostationary orbit, another of Clarke's ideas, is a special and very useful case of the
geosynchronous orbit. It has to be perfectly circuit so that the satellite doesn't drift north
and south or move up and down. A geostationary satellite appears to hang in the sky, so
people don't have to track orbits or worry about them disappearing over the horizon.
Users simply point their dish at a fixed spot and leave it there. With only three satellites
in geostationary orbit, an operator can cover the entire planet.

The first satellite to reach geostationary orbit was Syncom 3, launched by NASA
(National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in 1964. Positioned above the Pacific, it
carried live television pictures of the Tokyo Olympic Games to U.S. viewers before being
commandeered by the US Military for use in the Vietnam War. Since then, an, increasing
number of mainly communications satellites have joined it. They are too high to
experience atmospheric drag, so old geostationary satellites remain in space, slowly
drifting into more inclined orbits as a result of the moon's gravity. Over the years, they
have formed an artificial ring around Earth, called the Clarke Belt.

The main problem with geostationary satellites is that they must be positioned over the
equator, making it difficult for people to use them at latitudes in the far North or South.
The dish requires a clear line of sight to the satellite which can be blocked by buildings if
it lies low on the horizon. For example, a geostationary satellite can't reach many parts of
Manhattan unless the dish is placed high up on a skyscraper. In the Antarctic, even low-
lying hills can block the field of view.

The dish size increases with latitude, because the signal strength is made much weaker
the further North or South the antenna is positioned. This happens for the same reason
that less heat from the sun reaches the poles than the tropics - it loses energy passing
through the atmosphere. As Figure 12.2 shows, the amount of atmosphere blocking its
path is thicker at higher latitudes.

GEO users far from the equator are also more likely to suffer from sun outages when
satellites literally fly too close to the sun. During the March and September equinoxes,
the sun passes behind the satellite as seen from the dish, temporarily drowning out the
signal with its own radiation. These outages occur up five times each equinox, lasting
between one and ten minutes, depending on the location and dish size. The bad news is
that they're completely unavoidable, but the good news is that they're entirely predictable,
so users can plan ahead. Many say that despite these outages, Satellites are still more
reliable than Earth-bound-networks. They don’t suffer from power failures or fiber cuts
when someone accidentally chops through a cable.

GEO's other disadvantage is its great height. Even at the speed of light, signals take a
fraction of a second to get to the Clarke Belt and back, producing a noticeable delay in
conversation and playing havoc with Internet protocols. They also require powerful
rockets to launch, and are too far away for a malfunctioning, satellite to be repaired in
orbit or brought back to Earth.

Air
Path through atmosphere

Earth
N

Longer path through atmosphere at high latitude

 Distance from earth –36000 kms.

 Used in television broadcast, weather, navigation & telephone
network backbones e.g. INMARSAT
 They have a period of rotation of 24 hrs.
 Orbit inclination of Os.
Advantages:-
1) Only 3 GEOs can cover any spot on earth. The senders
and receivers can use fixed antenna positions. No adjusting
needed, Hence ideal for TV & Radio broadcast.
2) High lifetime (15 yrs)
3) No handover needed due to large footprint
4) No Doppler shift exhibited due to zero relative
movement.

Disadvantages:-
1) Due to low elevation above 60˚ latitude, northern & southern
regions of earth have more problems receiving these satellites and
larger antennas are needed.
2) High transmission power is needed (multiples of 10s of watts)
this is a problem for battery powered devices.
3) High latency of over 0.25s one-way. Many retransmission
schemes for fixed networks fail.
4) Due to large footprint, either frequency cannot be reused and
special antennas focussing on smaller footprint may be needed
5) Transferring GEOs into orbit is very expensive.

2) Low earth orbit satellites (LEOs)

The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) region extends from about 100 km to 1,000 km. Any higher
would put a satellite inside the deadly Van Alien belt, and any lower, inside the
thermosphere, the part of the atmosphere where friction burns meteors up.

Low orbits are the most common kind because they are so easy to reach. The earliest
communications satellites, the Echo series, used them from 1960 onward. Essentially just
balloons coated in silver foil, they
could reflect television transmissions across America. They needed powerful tracking
equipment and giant antennas the size of houses, so sensitive that two AT&T engineers
trying to find a satellite picked up radiation from the Big Bang instead. Their accidental
discovery was rewarded several years later with a Nobel Prize.

This complicated tracking meant that low orbits fell out of favor for communications
purposes, but they enjoyed a revival in the 1990s. When a satellite is only a few hundred
miles up, its transmissions are much easier to pick up. By the late 1990s, advances in
technology had enabled receivers for these satellites to be made no larger than mobile
phones of a decade earlier, and many companies planned cellular networks based on
satellites. The most well known was the ill-fated Iridium, though its failure has not put off
others who plan similar schemes.

LEOs do have some disadvantages. Though huge by the standards of terrestrial cellular
networks, their coverage is smaller than higher satellites. The number needed to cover the
whole planet varies depending on altitude, but is generally a lot; proposed systems have
required between 40 and 1,000. They also need to be replaced every few years because of
atmospheric drag. Most include small boosters to lift them back up, but unlike the solar-
powered batteries that run satellites themselves, these require actual rocket fuel. When it
runs out, they fall to Earth.

The loss of satellites to drag can be significant, not to mention dangerous for anyone
living underneath. If a network of 200 has a lifetime of four years, anew one needs to be
launched every week. Modern rockets have a tendency to explode, so operators need to
keep some spares in orbit.

The lowest orbits of all are used mostly for scientific and military purposes, as they are
the easiest and safest for human engineers to reach. With the exception of the Apollo
program, few astronauts have ever ventured beyond the LEO range. A mission lasting
only a few days doesn't have to worry about being dragged back to Earth, while a space
station can be brought supplies of rocket fuel along with food or replacement crews.
Unique satellites, such as the Hubble telescope, are regularly saved from burn-up and
carried up a few miles by the space shuttle, but doing this is so costly that communication
satellites are cheaper to replace than salvage.

 95 to 120 minutes periods of rotation

 They try to ensure a high elevation for every spot on
earth to provide a high quality communication link.
 LEO satellites are visible for only 10 minutes from earth.
 It can be categorised as little LEOs (low BW services at
100 bps), big LEOs (1000 bps) and Broadband LEOs (Mbps of
BW)

Advantages
1. Using advanced compression scheme, transmission
rates of 2400 bps for voice communication possible
even for mobile station with low transmission power
and omni directional antennas.
2. Relativity low delay for packets (roughly equal to
10ms). It is almost same as for long distance wired
communication.
 3. Smaller footprint means better frequency reuse
similar to the concept used for cellular networks.
4. Better global coverage and much higher elevation
in Polar Regions.

Disadvantages
1. Many satellites are needed for global coverage (50-200 or even more)
2. Additional mechanisms for connection, handover between satellites
required due to short time of visibility with high elevation.
3. High no. of satellites combined with fast movement result in a high
complexity of satellite systems.
4. Short lifetime (5-8 yrs) due to atmospheric drag & radiation from
inner Van Allen belts. (48 satellites with 8 yrs lifetime for Globalstar mean a
new satellite required every 2 months.)
6. Low latency also means better routing mechanisms for data packets
(not needed by GEO due to large footprint)

(3) Medium Earth orbit(MEO)

Position between LEO & GEO

Middle Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites are those at an altitude of between around 5,000 and
15,000 km above the atmosphere and the most dangerous of the Van Alien radiation belts
that encircle the Earth. MEO allows the whole world to be covered with relatively few
satellites compared to lower orbits-around ten, with the exact number depending on the
altitude. Its advantage over GEO is reduced latency, enabling conversations without
noticeable delay.

Technically, MEO can extend right out to 35,000 km or more, but few satellites use non-
geosynchronous orbits above about 10,000 km. While it is perfectly possible to put one
higher than this, there is little reason to do so. Apart from the Clarke Belt, these higher
orbits offer few advantages, but require more powerful rockets and radio equipment
Below 5,000 km, the Van Alien radiation is so strong that it will quickly destroy a
satellite.
The most well known users of the MEO region are the ICO (Intermediate Circular Orbit)
phone system and the GPS (Global Positioning System) satellites, both of which can be
picked up with a nondirectional antenna.

Advantages:-
1) Orbit around 10,000 km only 12 satellites reqd. for global
communication (more than GEO but less than LEO)
2) Simple system designs due to low period (6hrs)
3) Depending on indication, MEOs can cover large population
requiring less handovers

Disadvantages:-
Due to larger distance, the delay increases to about 70 to 80 ms.
Higher transmit power & special antennas required for smaller footprints

Routing
ISL Support
1) Possible if the satellite offers and the traffic can be routed
between satellite
2) One user to send up data to the satellites which sends it to
another satellite & so on
3) The last satellite sends the data down to the earth.
4) Only one uplinks & one downlink needed per direction

Advantages
1. Number of gateways on earth get reduced.
2. Lower latency

Disadvantages
Highly complex system
Additional antennas and routing hardware & software required in
satellites

Non ISL support

1. The user sends up data to the satellite.
2. The satellite forwards data to the gateway on earth
 3. Routing takes place in fixed network as usual until
another gateway is reached which is responsible for the
satellite above the recr
4. The data is sent up again to the satellite which
forwards it down to the receiver
5. Two uplinks & two downlinks per direction are
needed.

Localisation
Problematic because the base station (satellites) moves as well.

Satellite network gateways maintains the following registers

HLR: to store static information about the user, as well as it is for the
current location.
VLR: to store the last known location from mobile station.
SUMR: to store the current position of satellite & a mapping of each user to
its current satellite through which the communication to the user is possible.

Registration of a mobile station

1. Mobile station sends a signal that one or several satellites can
receive.
2. Satellite receiving such a signal report this event to a gateway.
3. The gateway determines the address of user from the location
of satellite.
4. The final data is requested from user, HLR, VLR, SUMR are
updated periodically and as per requirement.

Calling: The call is forwarded to a gateway that localizes a mobile station

using HLR & VLR with the help from SUMR appropriate satellite for
communication can be found out and the communication can be setup.

Handovers:
Intra satellite handover: It is required if the user moves from one spot
beam to another spot beam of the same satellite. Using special antennas the
satellite can create several spot beams with its footprint or else the satellites
moves.

Inter-satellite handover: It is required if the user leaves the footprint of the

satellite or the satellite moves away.

Gateway handover: While the mobile station and the satellite might still
have good contact, the satellite might move away from the current gateway
and may have to connect to another gateway.

Intersystem handover: It is the handover between the satellite system and

terrestrial system like PSTN, ISDN or PBN

MOBILE SATELLITE SYSTEMS

In the early 1990s, many companies began to dream of mobile voice and data networks
that would span the entire earth. Cellphones had already been inspired by the flip-top
communicators of Star Trek, so the thought of being able to beam a message up to space
was a marketer's dream. All would use low or middle orbits, eliminating the latency of
VSATs and the problems of coverage at high latitudes. The first planned systems are
summarized in the following table.

System Data Orbit Number Frequency

Speed Region [GHz]
Iridium 2.4 kbps 780 km (LEO) 66 1.6 (L – Band)
ICO 64 kbps 10,390 km (MEO) 10 2.0 (IMT – 2000)
Globalstar 9.6 kbps 1,410 km (LEO) 48 2.5 (S – Band)
Teledesic 2 Mbps 1,350 km (LEO) 288 20 (Ka – Band)
Skybridge 2 Mbps 1,469 km (LEO) 80 10 (Ku – Band)
Orbcomm 2.4 kbps 820 km (LEO) 36 0.6 (L – Band)

Mobile Satellite Network

With so many competing technologies on Earth-at the time, it was far from clear that
GSM would emerge the winner, and CDMA was still in its experimental stages-satellite
phones also had the potential to create a proper global standard. Why buy different
phones for New York, Los Angeles, and Paris when one could work in all three, as well
as in the Sahara Desert and at the South Pole?
By the time these networks were ready for launch, many had already been overtaken by
terrestrial mobile systems. Cellphones became cheaper and lighter, while satellite phones
were very bulky and cost thousands of dollars, with call charges to match. An early
advertising slogan for one system was "If you can see the sky..." which inadvertently
emphasized what it couldn't do-namely, work inside. That system, along with others, later
filed for bankruptcy.

It might seem that mobile satellite services have no future, but investors are undeterred.
Though business travelers might not need satellite phones, most people on the planet
have still not made a phone call, so there is a compelling social case. There is also a large
untapped market even in the richer countries. America is big and more than 50 percent of
the United States is not yet covered by cellphone networks. The collapse of early systems
is put down to marketing and their failure to anticipate the demand for high-speed data
brought about by the Internet

Mobile Satellite Telephony

Three schemes originally promised worldwide satellite telephony. They are sometimes
referred to collectively as big LEOs, somewhat inaccurately because one used higher
MEO orbits. Two of them went bankrupt in 1999, the main reasons being the huge
expense arid complexity of the networks coupled with very low data rates.

Iridium was the most spectacular failure, finally shutting down in March 2000. Many
users who had paid thousands of dollars for handsets were cut off, including
peacekeepers in Kosovo and an Iridium-sponsored expedition to prove that the system
worked at the South Pole. Its 89 satellites, each the size and weight of a car were
scheduled to be “deorbited” - fired into the Earth's atmosphere at a shallow angle to
ensure that they burn up safely.
.
Rival ICO was luckier. It filed for Chapter II protection before it had even launched its
satellites, enabling something to be salvaged. With new investment that enabled its
satellites to be refitted for higher data rates, it emerged in July 2000 as, New ICO,
promising broadband services. It is also the only satellite system to use the 2 GHz
spectrum proposed by the ITU for IMT-2000 services, so may eventually interoperate
with standards such as UMTS and cdma2000.

The most successful so far has been Globalstar which is an intrinsically simpler system.
As shown in Fig 12.5, it routes all calls via ground stations, while Iridium and ICO used
ISL (Inter Satellite Links). This means that Globalstar doesn't work everywhere, because
it needs a ground station to be in range of the satellite, but the savings in cost and
simplicity seem to be worth the reduced coverage. Each station has a range of several
hundred miles, so a station in Paris can cover the Irish Sea and one in Miami, the
Caribbean. When every station is operational, the system should cover nearly everywhere
except the Antarctic and the middle of the oceans.
Mobile Satellite Telemetry
Though not as exciting as the big LEO projects, so-called little LEO constellations have
proved more successful. They use as little as two satellites to offer narrowband data
services, such as telemetry, short messages, and non-urgent paging. They do not offer
voice or interactive data, keeping costs down. Most offer only partial coverage and can
have latency of several minutes as a transmitter waits for a satellite to appear overhead.

The most successful so far is Orbcomm that has launched 26 satellites and plans ten more
to achieve greater coverage and lower latency. Analysts say that it has proved that there is
a sustainable business case for little LEO schemes. The costs are low and the potential
market is quite high. This has encouraged many other companies to follow it, the most
ambitious being Leo One, planning 48 satellites. Around 20 other systems plan to use
fewer satellites to focus on specific parts of the earth, mostly in the U.S.