King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals

Department of Electrical Engineering

EE 418 Introduction to Satellite Communications

Major Exam II
Sunday, 30 December 2007
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Name:

ID:

Instructor: Dr. Wajih Abu-Al-Saud

Problem Score Out of

1 28

2 48

3 24

Total 100

Good luck!
Important Constants:

Earth’s average radius (rE) = 6378 km

Speed of light (c)= 2.998 * 108 m/s
Boltzmann’s constant (k) = 1.38 * 10-23 J/K
Standard Noise Temperature T0 = 290 K
Power provided by sun (Psun) = 1.39 kW/m2

Problem 1: [28 points]

A LEO satellite at an altitude of 1000 km provides service to a circular region with a radius of 200
km around its sub-satellite point in the Ka band (18 GHz – 23 GHz). Assuming a satellite antenna
aperture efficiency of 0.75, find the following:

a) 3-dB beam width of the antenna that will provide this coverage. (6
points)

b) Radius of the satellite antenna. (6 points)

c) Gain of the satellite antenna. (6 points)

d) If two identical antennas of this type are placed facing each other at a distance of 10 km
apart, and 1 W of power is fed to one of them, what will be the power at the output of the
other one (assume no losses other than path loss). (10 points)
Problem 2: [48 points]

A GEO satellite is part of a communication system that provides full Earth coverage of an FM
modulated analog TV channel. The uplink of this system has a C/N ratio of 21.5 dB and C/I ratio of
20 dB. The downlink has a C/I ratio of 22.5 dB. The downlink has the following specifications.

Transmitter Parameters
  Trans. Max Output Power   5.0 W
  Trans. Power Amplifier Backoff   3.5 dB
  Antenna Aperture Efficiency 0.6
Trans. Antenna
  3-dB Beamwidth 17.0 
  Edge of Beam Loss   3.0 dB
Transmitted Information Signal
Signal Bandwidth 38.0 MHz
  Carrier Signal Frequency   3.5 GHz 
Receiver Parameters
  Antenna Aperture Efficiency 0.5
Receiver Antenna specifications
  Diameter 1.2 M
  Received Noise (at output of antenna) TIN 35.0 K
  Noise Temp. 45.0 K
RF Stage
  Gain 20.0 dB
  Noise Temp 100.0 K
Mixer Stage
  Gain - 6.0 dB
  Noise Temp 400.0 K
IF Stage
  Gain 10.0 dB
Transmission Path
  Max Satellite-Earth Station Distance 40 000 Km
  Clear Air Atmospheric Loss 3.0 dB
  Rain Loss 18.0 dB
  Other Losses 2.0 dB

a) Find the C/N ratio of the downlink (24 points)

b) Assuming the signal transmitted towards the satellite in the uplink contains no noise, find
the C/N ratio of the signal at the output of the IF stage in the downlink earth station.
(12 points)

c) Knowing that the transmitted signal is an FM modulated signal and given that the
original TV channel has a bandwidth of 5 MHz, and that pre-emphasis/de-emphasis
provides an improvement of 8 dB, find the S/N ratio of the demodulated TV channel.
(12 points)
Problem 3: [24 points]

a) The noise figure (NF) of a satellite receiver system is 2.3 dB. What is the noise
temperature of this system? (6 points)

b) The height of a spinner satellite is 4 m and the total area of solar cells on its frame is
35 m2. If these solar cells have an efficiency of 0.2, find the maximum power that these
cells can provide when they exposed to sun light. (6 points)

c) List three (3) quantities that are measured by sensors on a satellite and reported back to
base station monitoring the satellite. (6 points)

d) List three (3) subsystems of commercial satellite. (6 points)