Module 3

Communication Satellites
Introduction

• Satellites have been used for a variety of applications like

Communication
Navigation
Weather forecasting,
Earth observation,
Scientific and
Military services
• Satellites are also being used as

navigational aids by vehicles on land, in the air or on the sea

in remote sensing applications
in astronomical research and
in exploring the atmosphere.
Based on the intended applications, the satellites are broadly
classified as

• communication satellites,
• navigation satellites,
• weather forecasting satellites,
• Earth observation satellites,
• scientific satellites
• military satellites.
 Communication-related Applications of Satellites
• Telecommunication satellites provide a varied range of services mainly
including television broadcasting, international telephony and data
communication services.
• Satellite TV refers to the use of satellites for relaying TV programmes
from a point where they originate to a large geographical area.
• GEO satellites in point-to-multipoint configuration are employed for
satellite TV applications.
• There are primarily two types of satellite television distribution systems,
namely :
• the television receive-only (TVRO) and
• direct broadcasting satellite (DBS) systems.
• In satellite telephony, satellites provide both long distance
(especially intercontinental) point-to-point or trunk
telephony services as well as mobile telephony services.

• They are particularly advantageous when the distances

involved are large.

• when the region to be covered is sparsely populated or has

a difficult geographical terrain.
• Satellites also provide data communication services including
• data, broadcast and multimedia services such as data
collection and broadcasting
• image and video transfer,
• voice,
• internet,
• two-way computer interactions and database inquiries.
• Communication satellites can be GEO satellites or a constellation
of LEO, MEO or HEO (highly elliptical orbit) satellites.

• GEO satellites maintain a key role in setting up national

programmes and distributing traditional services such as
television or more novel services such as access to the internet.

• New trends in mobile communication have led to the

development of constellations of non-GEO satellites in the LEO,
MEO and HEO.
• Hence, broadcasting services like TV, radio and telephony
communication services mainly remain in the domain of GEO
satellites.

• While the newer services like messaging, voice, fax, data and
video conferencing facilities are well suited to LEO, MEO or
HEO satellite constellations.
 Geostationary Satellite Communication Systems :

• It is a preferred orbit for satellite communication systems.

• Provides most of the revenue for satellite system operators. The first
geostationary communication satellite, named Early Bird (Intelsat 1) was
launched by INTELSAT in 1965.
• Some of the important geostationary satellite missions include Intelsat,
Inmarsat, Telstar, Asiasat, Arabsat, Galaxy, GE, Superbird, Eutelsat, Astra,
Palapa and so on.
• The most important applications of geostationary communication
satellites in the current scenario include DTH satellite television
broadcasting services.
 Non-geostationary Satellite Communication Systems

• provide mobile communication services as well as other services like

messaging, video, fax and data communication.
• Constellations of satellites orbiting in LEO or MEO orbits can provide
global mobile communication services.
• However, the cost of building such a constellation of satellites is huge
as compared to having a geostationary satellite.
• IRIDIUM, Orbcomm, Globalstar and ICO systems are some of the non-
geostationary satellite communication systems.
Payloads • Transponder is the key payload of any communication
satellite

Basic elements of a satellite

communication system
• Basic elements of a satellite communication system include the ground
segment and the space segment.
• The ground segment : comprises the transmitting and the receiving Earth
stations together with their associated instruments, antennae, electronic
circuits, etc.
• These Earth stations provide access to the space segment by transmitting and
receiving information from the satellite, interconnect users with one another
and with the terrestrial network.
• The space segment : comprises one or more satellites, which act as repeater
stations providing point-to-point, point-to-multipoint or multipoint interactive
services.
• The information to be transmitted (including voice channels
for a telephone service, a composite video signal or digital
data, etc.) is modulated using analogue or digital means,
• up-converted to the desired microwave frequency band of
transmission (VHF, UHF, L, S, C, X, Ku or Ka),
• amplified to the required power level and then
• beamed up to the satellite from the transmitting Earth
station (uplink).
• The received signals are amplified by the satellite, down-converted to a
different frequency and then retransmitted towards Earth (downlink).

• The device on board the satellite that performs the amplification and
frequency conversion is referred to as a transponder and is the main
payload of any communication satellite.

• The downlink signal, received either by an Earth station, a DTH receiver

or a mobile receiver, is weak and is first amplified to bring it to a level
where it can be processed.

• The signal is then down-converted, demodulated and converted back

into a base band signal.
• Hence, a transponder is the key element in the satellite
communication network and is essentially a repeater which

- receives a signal transmitted from the Earth station on the

uplink,
- amplifies the signal and
- retransmits it on the downlink at a different frequency from
that of the received signal.

This frequency conversion is done in order to avoid interference

between the uplink and the downlink signals.
Types of Transponders

Transponders may be broadly classified into two types depending upon

the manner in which they process the signal:

1. Transparent or bent pipe transponders

2. Regenerative transponders
[Link] or Bent Pipe Transponders

• Transparent transponders process the uplink satellite signal in such a

way that only their amplitude and the frequency are altered; the
modulation and the spectral shape of the signal are not affected.

• They are also referred to as ‘bent pipe’ transponders as they simply

transmit the information back to Earth.

• Transparent transponders comprise an input filter, low noise amplifier

(LNA), down converter, input multiplexer, channel amplifiers, high
power amplifiers and output de-multiplexer.
• The uplink section of the
transponder, comprising the input
filter, LNA and the down converter is
common to all the channels and is
shared by all the transponders.
• The down converter is basically a
mixer .
• It provides a fixed frequency
translation corresponding to the
exact frequency difference between
the centre of the uplink and the
downlink frequency bands.
• The full bandwidth is separated into individual transponder channels
by a bank of RF filters called the input multiplexer (IMUX), with each
filter being tuned to pass the full bandwidthof a particular channel
and reject all other channels.
• The output of each IMUX filter is then amplified by separate power
amplifiers.
• The power amplifiers employed are travelling wavetube amplifiers
(TWTA) for higher power levels (50 W or more) and at higher
frequency bands (Ku and Ka bands) and
• solid state power amplifiers (SSPAs) for lower power applications.
• The output of all the transponder channels is then combined in an
output de-multiplexer, which is composed of specially designed low-
loss waveguide filters and then fed to a common transmitting
antenna for down-beaming the signal on to Earth.
[Link] Transponders
• Regenerative transponders are those in which some onboard processing is
done and the received signal is altered before retransmission.

• This onboard processing helps to improve the throughput and error

performance by restoring the signal quality prior to retransmission to the
Earth.

• These repeaters are also called digital processing repeaters as they use
various digital techniques like
narrowband channel selection and routing,
demodulation,
error correction,
reformatting of data, etc., for processing the received signal.
• Transparent transponders, although they are simplest to
design and can handle all three multiple-access methods, i.e.
FDMA, TDMA and CDMA, cannot be used to optimize the
transmission link for a particular service, for reducing link
noise or for improving the satellite link performance.

• Regenerative transponders offer the flexibility of link design

for optimizing satellite performance as they actively alter the
signal before retransmission to the Earth.
Three types of regenerative transponders are currently being
used in communication satellites.
They are :
[Link]-switched TDMA transponders employing wideband RF
and IF switching.

[Link]-band digital processing transponders with channel routing

and digital beam forming.

[Link]-remod transponders, which demodulate the received

signal and completely restore the information before
retransmission.
Transponder Performance Parameters :

• Isotropic radiated power (EIRP) is most important technical

parameter of a communication satellite.
• EIRP defines the downlink performance of a transponder and
specifies the coverage area of a satellite.
• The uplink performance of a satellite is defined by the
parameter called the relative gain-to-noise temperature
(G/T) ratio.