Satellite Communication (MDC01104) By Bhoopesh

Attempt any five

Q.1 (a) State Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion. Also, derive the expressions for Time
period, Velocity and Orbital radius. (8)
(b) The orbit for an earth-orbiting satellite orbit has an eccentricity of 0.15 and a semi-major
axis of 9000 km. Determine (a) its Periodic Time; (b) the Apogee Height; (c) the Perigee
Height. Assume a mean value of 6371 km for the earth’s radius. (6)

Q.2 (a) Draw the block diagram of satellite control system and describe the tracking, telemetry,
and command facilities of a satellite. (5)

(b) Draw and explain the block diagram of double frequency conversion transponder for
14/11 GHz band. (5)
(c) An LNA is connected to a receiver which has a noise figure of 12 dB. The gain of the
LNA is 40 dB, and its noise temperature is 120 K. Calculate the overall noise temperature
referred to the LNA input. (4)

Q.3 (a) Derive the expression for system noise temperature of earth station receiver system.

(6)

(b) For the system shown in figure below, the receiver noise figure is 12 dB, the cable loss
is 5 dB, the LNA gain is 50 dB, and its noise temperature is 150 K. The antenna noise
temperature is 35 K. Calculate the noise temperature referred to the input. (4)

(c) The downlink transmission rate in a satellite circuit is 61Mb/s, and the required [E b/No]
at the ground station receiver is 9.5 dB. Calculate the required [C/No]. (4)

Q.4 (a) Describe mathematically how intermodulation noise originates in a satellite link and how
it may be reduced. (7)

(b) For a satellite circuit, the carrier-to-noise ratios are uplink 23 dB, downlink 20 dB,
intermodulation 24 dB. Calculate the overall carrier-to-noise ratio in decibels. (3)

(c) An earth station antenna has a diameter of 30 m, has an overall efficiency of 68%, and is
used to receive a signal at 4150 MHz. At this frequency, the system noise temperature is 79
K when the antenna points at the satellite at an elevation angle of 28˚. What is the earth
station G/T ratio under these conditions? If heavy rain causes the sky temperature to
 increase so that the system noise temperature rises to 88 K, what is the new G/T value?

(4)

Q.5 (a) Draw and describe the structure of INTELSAT (i) Traffic data burst (ii) Reference burst
and (iii) Traffic burst. (9)

(b) Explain the function of the carrier and bit-timing recovery channel in a TDMA burst?

(2)
(c) Calculate the frame efficiency for an INTELSAT frame given the following information:
Total frame length = 120,832 symbols
Traffic bursts per frame = 14
Reference bursts per frame = 2
Guard interval = 103 symbols (3)

Q.6 (a) Discuss various attenuations caused by atmosphere in satellite communication with their
attenuation v/s frequency curves. (6)

(b) Discuss the effect of polarization in satellite communication. Also explain how
depolarization is caused by rain and ice. (4)

(c) Under clear-sky conditions, the downlink [C/N] is 20 dB, the effective noise temperature
of the receiving system being 400 K. If rain attenuation exceeds 1.9 dB for 0.1 percent of
the time, calculate the value below which [C/N] falls for 0.1 percent of the time.
Assume Ta = 280 K. (4)

Q.7 (a) Draw and describe the block diagram of an INTELSAT V communication system.

(8)

(b) A satellite transponder has a bandwidth of 36 MHz and saturation EIRP of 27 dBW. The
earth station receiver has a G/T ratio of 30 dB/K, and the total link losses are 196 dB. The
transponder is accessed by FDMA carriers each of 3 MHz bandwidth, and 6 dB output
backoff is employed. Calculate the downlink carrier-to-noise ratio for single-carrier
operation and the number of carriers which can be accommodated in the FDMA system.
Compare this with the number which could be accommodated if no backoff were needed.
The carrier-to-noise ratio determined for single-carrier operation may be taken as the
reference value, and it may be assumed that the uplink noise and intermodulation noise are
negligible. (6)

Q.8 (a) Write short note on (any one): (6)

(i) Satellite Subsystem
(ii) Unique Word Detection

(b) Solve following numerical (any two): (4 × 2)

(i) In a link budget calculation at 12 GHz, the free-space loss is 206 dB, the antenna
pointing loss is 1 dB, and the atmospheric absorption is 2 dB. The receiver G/T ratio is 19.5
dB/K, and receiver feeder losses are 1 dB. The EIRP is 48 dBW. Calculate the carrier-to-
noise spectral density ratio. (Boltzmann’s constant in dB units: –228.6)

(ii) A satellite at a distance of 40000 km from a point on earth’s surface radiates a power of
2 W from an antenna with a gain of 17 dB in the direction of the observer. Find the flux
density at the receiving point, and the power received by an antenna with an effective area
of 10 m2.

(iii) A 1-kHz test tone is used to produce a peak deviation of 5 KHz in an FM system. Given
that the received [C/N] is 30 dB, calculate the receiver processing gain and the post-detector
[S/N].

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