Space and Ground segments

Architecture of a Satellite Comm System

Architecture of a Satellite Comm System
It comprises of a ground segment and a space segment
Space segment:
Contains a satellite as well as terrestrial facilities for
control and monitoring of Satellite
It includes tracking, telemetry and command
station(TT&C) together with the satellite control
centre where all the operation associated with station
keeping and checking the vital functions of the
satellite are performed
Uplink waves transmitted from earth station and
received by satellite
Downlink station transmitting to receiving earth
station
Link analysis Quality of radio link is specified by Carr-
to-noise ratio. Quality of link from sta to sta is an
important factor, will be discussed in detail
Multiple Access Satellite is a nodal point of network
access to satellite or satellite transponder by several
carriers implies the use of multiple access techs
A satellite consist of payload and a platform
Payload consists of the Rx and Tx ants and all the
electronic eqpt which supports Tx of carriers

Architecture of a Satellite Comm System
Platform consists of all the sub systems which
permit the payload to operate
These include
Structure
Electric power supply
Temp control
Attitude and orbit control
Propulsion eqpt
Tracking, telemetry and control (TT&C)eqpt

Architecture of a Satellite Comm System
The main role of Payload are:-
To amplify the received carriers for retransmission on
down link. Carrier power at the input of Satellite Rx is of
the order of 100 pW to 1 nW. The carrier power at the
out put of Tx Amp is 10 100 W. The power gain is of
the order of 100 to 130 dB
Change the freq to avoid re-injection in to receiver
Architecture of a Satellite Comm System
Payload functionality
COLLECT microwave signals from given zone on earth
AMPLIFY radiofrequency carrier
CONVERT carrier frequency from uplink to downlink frequency
TRANSMIT microwave signals to given zone on earth
9
SATELLITE LINK MODEL
A Satellite System Basic Sections: Uplink, Satellite
Transponder, and Downlink
Transponder (Transmitter + Responder) Model
RF-to-RF Repeater
Tunnel Diode
Communications Payload
Engineering
Owen Clarke
Communications Payload
Engineering



11
Aims




To describe the main components of the Communications satellite payload
and explain how designs are impacted by the changing needs of the user
12
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Payload Function
3 Payload Constraints
4 Payload Specifications
5 Payload Configurations
6 Payload Equipment


13
Communications Payload Function
Repeater
Uplink Downlink
Communications Payload = Antenna Sub-System + Repeater
Receive
Antenna
Transmit
Antenna
14
Essential Communication Payload
Functions
Antenna Functions
To provide highly directional receive and transmit beams

Repeater Functions
Power Amplification
Frequency Conversion



15
Antenna Types and Functions
Reflector Antennas
Parabolic Reflector with Off-set Feed
With Gregorian or Cassegrain Sub reflector
Gridded Reflectors for Polarisation Discrimination
Dual Gridded Assemblies for dual plane polarisation
Direct Radiating Phased Arrays
Shaped Beams
Shaped Reflector Surfaces
Multiple Feeds with Beamforming Network
Generation of Multiple Beams from the same Aperture
Reflectors with De-focused Feed Arrays



16
Typical Repeater Functions
Receive and filter uplink signals
Provide minimum C/No degradation
Provide variable high gain amplification
Downconvert Frequency for re-transmission
Filter high power downlink signal and re-transmit
Provide high reliability in functionality
Beam-to-beam interconnectivity
Functional re-configurability
Beamforming
17
Why Filter?
Elimination of Spurious Transmissions
Elimination of Self Interference
Elimination of Image Bands introduced by Mixing Processes
Elimination of Alias Bands before and after Sampling Processes
Partitioning of Spectrum to allow Channelised Amplification
Partitioning of Spectrum for usage by Different Services
Partitioning of Spectrum for use on Different Routes
18
Why High Reliability?
Everyone wants machines, tools, people, services to be reliable
What is special about Communications Satellites?
Inaccessibility of the orbits used
LEO Generally highly inclined
GEO High altitude means: High potential energy AND High kinetic energy
Either way large high energy launch vehicles required
Very expensive to launch in the first place
Inaccessible to astronauts or remote control vehicles
Repair by external intervention virtually impossible
The design must be tolerant of internal failures
19
Payload Constraints
Accommodation
Physical size, must fit on spacecraft platform, compatibility with launch
vehicle fairing
Thermal Dissipation
Limited ability of spacecraft to radiate heat, radiator area
Mass
Impacts fuel, life, cost, functionality
Power consumption
Impacts thermal design, mass of power sub-system
Thermal Control
Comms. performance versus mass of thermal control hardware
Received Noise
Thermal noise
Transmitter Noise
Includes: Passive Intermodulation, Multipaction Noise

20
Quality of the Receive System G/T
The quality of the satellite receive system, in terms of its ability to receive a given
signal with a high signal to noise ratio is usually expressed as:

Ga/ Ts
Where:
Ga = Antenna Gain (Relative numerically to that of an isotropic
radiator and referenced to an arbitary interface at the
output of the antenna)
Ts = The Noise Temperature of the complete System (Referenced to
the same interface at the output of the antenna)

21
Noise Temperature
Ts = Ta + T1 + T2 / G1 + T3 / (G1.G2) +
T4 / (G1.G2.G3) ...
Ta = Antenna Noise Temperature
1 2 3 4
Concatenation of Noise Sources
Ts = Noise Temperature of the Complete System
22
E.I.R.P.
Effective Isotropic Radiated Power
EIRP = (Gain of Transmit Antenna)x(Transmit Power)
23
Payload Constraints
Spurious Products
Mixing products: From Frequency Converters
Intermodulation products: Non linearity in active devices
Passive intermodulation products (PIMP): Transmit chain, post High
Power Amplification
In Band: Directly impacts C/N
0

Out of Band: Interference to other transponders or systems
24
Payload Constraints Spurious
Products

Linear devices can be characterised by:
S
out
= aS
in

Memoryless Non-linear devices can be approximated over a limited
signal range by a polynomial relationship such as:
S
out
= a
1
S
in
+ a
2
S
in
2
+ a
3
S
in
3
+ a
4
S
in
4
+
If 2 signals are applied such that:
S
in
= Asin
1
t + Bsin
2
t
Then S
out
is found to contain frequency components as follows:

1
,
2
, (
1
-
2
), (
1
+
2
), 2
1
, 2
2
, (2
1
-
2
), (
1
- 2
2
), 3
1
,
3
2

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Intermodulation Products (2)
Order of a product is m = n + k for frequency nf
2
- kf
1
for 2 carriers
For many closely spaced carriers, IMPs are distributed contiguously
3rd order products most important in band
(C/I
3
) multi-carrier = (C/I
3
) 2carrier - 8 dB
f1 f2
5 th Order Products
5x(f2-f1) 3x(f2-f1)
f1 f2
3rd Order Product
26
Intermodulation Products (3)
Type of product Order Number of products of the
type
N=5 N=10
2F
1
F
2
3 N(N-1) 20 90
F
1
+ F
2
F
3
0.5N(N-1)(N-2) 30 360
3F
1
2F
2
5 N(N-1) 20 90
2F
1
+ F
2
2F
3
N(N-1)(N-2) 60 720
3F
1
F
2
F
3
0.5 N(N-1)(N-2) 30 360
2F
1
+ F
2
F
3
F
4
0.5 N(N-1)(N-2)(N-3) 60 2520
F
1
+ F
2
+ F
3
2F
4
0.5 N(N-1)(N-2)(N-3) 60 2520
F
1
+ F
2
+ F
3
F
4
F
5
0.5 N(N-1)(N-2)(N-3)(N-4) 120 15120
Total 400 21780
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Intermodulation Products (1)
-20 -15 -10 -5 0
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
-35
-30
-25
-20
-15
Input Back Off (dB)
Output Back Off (dB) IMP Level (dB)
N=1
N=3
N=10
F1+F2-F3
2F1-F2
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Payload Constraints
Transmit Characteristics
Gain vs frequency
Gain slope
Gain ripple
Group delay vs frequency
Group delay slope
Group delay ripple
AM/PM conversion
AM/PM transfer
AM modulation of one carrier transferred to PM modulation of another

29
Payload Constraints
Electromagnetic Compatibility
Radiated and conducted
Emissions and susceptibility
Ionising Radiation
Reliability
30
Payload Configurations -
Channelisation
31
Payload Configurations - Redundancy
S
w
i
t
c
h

N
e
t
w
o
r
k

S
w
i
t
c
h

N
e
t
w
o
r
k

32
Payload Configurations - Eutelsat 2
33
Payload Configurations Inmarsat 3
C-BAND
Rx HORN
LHCP
RHCP
C-BAND
RECEIVER
LHCP
RHCP
FORWARD
I.F.
PROCESSOR
L-BAND Tx
ANTENNA
BEAM
FORMER
OUTPUT
NETWORK
22 OFF
SSPAs
L-BAND TRANSMIT SECTION
L-BAND Rx
ANTENNA
22-OFF
LOW NOISE
AMPLIFIERS
RETURN
COMBINER
RETURN
I.F.
PROCESSOR
LHCP
RHCP
C-BAND
SSPAs
OMUX
LHCP
RHCP
C-BAND
Tx HORN
TT & C
~
~
~
~
~
~
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Payload Configurations Trends
Mobile
SS
MARECS INMARSAT 2 INMARSAT 3 INMARSAT 4
Payload Mass (Kg) 100 130 208 932
Payload Power (W) 500 660 1725-2138 9000
Design Lifetime
(Years)
7 10 13 13
Launch Periods 1981-84 1990-92 1996-97 2004
No of S/C in Series 3 4 5 2 + 1
FSS/DBS ECS EUTELSAT 2 HOTBIRD W3A
Payload Mass (Kg) 117 208 268 507
Payload Power (W) 638 2090 4188 6900
No Of Channels 12/14 16 20/22 50
Design Lifetime
(Years)
7 8-10 12-15 12+
Launch Periods 1983-88 1990-95 1996-98 2004
No of S/C in Series 5 6 6 1
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On-board Processing Why?
Beamforming
Beam-to-beam interconnectivity
Improved link performance
More flexibility
Improved immunity to interference
Multi-rate communications
Reduced complexity of earth stations
36
On-board Processing Why Not?
Power dissipation
Mass
Thermal dissipation
Packaging
Radiation hardness
Reliability
Difficult to make Future Proof
Should not do processing onboard which could be done on the
ground by reconfiguring the overall system

37
Transparent
- Channel to beam routing flexibility in multi-beam coverage
- Uplink to Downlink frequency mapping flexibility
- Channel Bandwidth flexibility

Regenerative
- Independent optimisation of uplink and downlink access,
modulation and coding
- Link advantage through isolation of uplink and downlink noise
and interference effects
- Data rate conversion and signal reformatting
- Packet level switching
- Security features
Transparent Or Regenerative
39
SATELLITE LINK MODEL
A Satellite System Basic Sections: Uplink, Satellite
Transponder, and Downlink
Downlink Model
Architecture of a Satellite Comm System
Ground / Earth Station:
Contains earth Stas , End user eqpt
Vary in size, 30m dish (INTELSAT Network) to 0.6m
dish (Dir television receiving station)
It contains Major sub subsystem of Ground Station :-
a) High Power Amplifier (HPA)
b) Solid State Power Amp (SSPA)
c) Modem Sub Systems
d) Antenna Sub Systems
e) Power Sub Systems



Earth Station
Earth Station Architecture