WELCOME

LOW EARTH ORBIT NANO-SATELLITE COMMUNICATION USING IRIDIUM NETWORK

Contents
Orbits Types of satellites Comparison of different satellites system Iridium network Iridium v/s other telecommunication networks disadvantages Applications conclusion reference
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Why Satellite Networks ?

Wide geographical area coverage

From kbps to Gbps communication everywhere

Faster deployment than terrestrial infrastructures Bypass clogged terrestrial networks and are oblivious to terrestrial disasters Supporting both symmetrical and asymmetrical architectures Seamless integration capability with terrestrial networks Very flexible bandwidth-on-demand capabilities Flexible in terms of network configuration and capacity allocation Broadcast, Point-to-Point and Multicast capabilities Scalable
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Orbits
GEO (33786 km)

GEO: Geosynchronous Earth Orbit MEO: Medium Earth Orbit

Outer Van Allen Belt (13000-20000 km)

LEO: Low Earth Orbit

MEO ( < 13K km)

LEO ( < 2K km) Inner Van Allen Belt (1500-5000 km)

Types of Satellites
Geostationary/Geosynchronous Earth Orbit Satellites (GSOs) (Propagation Delay: 250-280 ms) Medium Earth Orbit Satellites (MEOs) (Propagation Delay: 110-130 ms) Highly Elliptical Satellites (HEOs) (Propagation Delay: Variable) Low Earth Orbit Satellite (LEOs) (Propagation Delay: 20-25 ms)
LEO: < 2K km (Globalstar, Iridium, Teledesic) GEO: 33786 km

MEO: < 13K km (Odyssey, Inmarsat-P)

Geostationary/Geosynchronous Earth Orbit Satellites (GSOs)

33786 km equatorial orbit Rotation speed equals Earth rotation speed
(Satellite seems fixed in the horizon)

Wide coverage area Applications (Broadcast/Fixed Satellites, Direct Broadcast, Mobile Services)

Medium Earth Orbit Satellites (MEOs)

Positioned in 10-13K km range. Delay is 110-130 ms. Will orbit the Earth at less than 1 km/s. Applications
Mobile Services/Voice (Intermediate Circular Orbit (ICO) Project) Fixed Multimedia (Expressway)

Low Earth Orbit Satellites (LEOs)

Usually less than 2000 km (780-1400 km are favored). Few ms of delay (20-25 ms). They must move quickly to avoid falling into Earth LEOs circle Earth in 100 minutes at 24K km/hour. (5-10 km per second). Examples:
Earth resource management (Landsat, Spot, Radarsat) Paging (Orbcomm) Mobile (Iridium) Fixed broadband (Teledesic, Celestri, Skybridge)

Low Earth Orbit Satellites (LEOs) (cont.)

Little LEOs: 800 MHz range Big LEOs: > 2 GHz Mega LEOs: 20-30 GHz

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GEO vs. LEO

Geo-stationary Earth orbital satellite
On a circular orbit in the equatorial plane at an altitude of 35786 km making 1 revolution in 24 hours. Unable to service north or south latitudes > 70 degree and has long propagation delay (270ms, one way) Need huge antenna for low-powered mobile terminals No satellite tracking needed, relay communication 24 hours a day Good for non RT, non-interactive application (i.e. TV broadcasting)
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GEO vs. LEO

Low Earth Orbital satellites
Excellent link feasibility with low delay due to low orbit Small coverage cell is obtainable with small on-board antenna Global coverage possible Require large number of spacecraft (satellites) Very complex space control system Frequent handovers (~10 min between satellites, ~1-2 min between beams) Low minimum angle
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Comparison of Different Satellite Systems

LEO MEO GEO Satellite Life Hand-held Terminal Propagation Delay Propagation Loss 3-7 Possible Short Low 10-15 Possible Medium Medium Medium Medium Medium 10-15 Difficult Long High Simple None Mostly Always
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Network Complexity Complex Hand-off Visibility of a Satellite Very Short

Iridium Network
Low Earth Orbit Satellite System

True pole-to-pole coverage

66 Satellites in orbit 6 Orbits Altitude of 780 Km Minimum elevation angle 8.2 0 Average satellite view time 10 minutes Access Scheme FDMA and TDMA

Maximum number of users 80 users per a diameter of 318 Km

Low cost availability for research purposes ( NSF sponsored)

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Cont..
Satellite speed = 26,000 km/h = 7 km/s Satellite visibility = 9 - 10 min System period = 100 minutes 4.8 kbps voice, 2.4 Kbps data TDMA

80 channels /beam
3168 beams globally (2150 active beams) Dual mode user handset User-Satellite Link = L-Band Gateway-Satellite Link = Ka-Band Inter-Satellite Link = Ka-Band
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IRIDIUM Satellite Configuration

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Idea Combine multiple Iridium channels in to a single logical link

Iridium Based Data Communication

Inverse Multiplexing

Distributes data from a single application over multiple links. Increases the available bandwidth per application Packet based inverse multiplexing solutions exist - Multi-link point-to-point protocol (MLPPP)
Low Bandwidth Links

App 1

High Bandwidth Link

Inv-Mux

Mux

App 2

App 1

App 3 Multiplexing

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Inverse multiplexing

IRIDIUM vs. other satellite telecommunication network

Geographical coverage
Iridium: truly global with 66 satellites; Others focuses on regions in the mid-latitudes (GlobalStar has 24 satellites, Odyssey has 9)

Co-operation with terrestrial Networks

Iridium uses 1 gateway; GlobalStar and Odyssey require maximum co-operation with terrestrial networks (no gateway, no service)
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IRIDIUM vs. other satellite telecommunication network

Propagation delay
- Satellite to Earth: Iridium has the shortest
- Terrestrial Networks: Iridium has the shortest since it has less terrestrial trail - Processing delay due to transmission systems and on-board processing: Iridium has the longest - Voice coding and decoding time (system independent)
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IRIDIUM vs. other satellite telecommunication network

Frequency bands and multiple access techniques
Iridium has a greater capacity (~0.3 mErlang/km2) than the Globalstar (~0.06 mErlang/km2) and Odyssey (~0.2 mErlang/km2) Iridium uses TDMA access technique to coexist with the other systems while Globalstar and Odysseys S-band downlink is share with ISM applications leading to service degradation in populated urban area
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IRIDIUM vs. other satellite telecommunication network

Elevation angle and signal fading margin
Iridium (15 degree); Globalstar and Odyssey (30 degree 90% of the time) Iridium has a higher fading margin (16 dB for voice, 35 dB for pagaing); Globalstar and Odyssey has less than 10 dB for voice

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Disadvantages
Increased number of call drops in Iridium-Iridium mode

Varies with time and weather

Increased call drops in presence of strong radio interference

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Applications

Communications data upload up to 40 MB files

Radar data uploads up to 55 MB files

Video conference - real time audio/video

Individual audio or video conference works with moderate quality with the commonly available codecs

Outreach Use

Daily Journal logs uploaded Daily Pictures uploaded Video clips uploaded

Held video conference with science teachers/ virtual camp tour

Wireless Internet access

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Contd.
Fixed cellular telephone service

Complementary and back up telephone service in fields of:

Retail Manufacturing

Military
Government Transportation

Insurance
Finance
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Conclusion

Signal Strength issues

Reduce the number of call drops Reduce signal attenuation at the server

Server Software

GUI based server management software Increase reliability during field operations Ease of operation and use by non-technical personnel

Delay Tolerant Networks

Communication networks tolerant to inherent delays Set of protocol and architectures well suited to intermittent links Supports communication in heterogeneous sensor webs such as polar sensor web Adapt the evolving DTN technologies to address polar communication issues?

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References
Henric Boiardt, Christian Rodriguez; Low Earth Orbit Nanosatellite Communication using Iridiums Network; IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE, September 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite _constellation Grard Maral, Michel Bousquet, Zhili Sun; Satellite communications systems: systems, techniques and technology; Wiley, 2009.
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