B-TECH.

ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

TERM PAPER REPORT
SUBMITTED TO
AMITY UNIVERSITY RAJASTHAN

TOPIC
SATELLITE COMMUNICATION SECURITY, VULNERABILITY AND
EW ASPECTS
BY
G. BHARATH REDDY
B-TECH. ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING
(III SEMESTER)
AMITY SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
2013-2017
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SATL COMN SECURITY, VULNERABILITY AND

ELECRONIC WARFARE ASPECTS

INDEX

Srl No Topic Page No

1 Introduction 3
2 Basics Of Satl Comn 5
3 Freq Used by Comn Satl 8
4 VSAT Comn 9
5 LEO Earth Satl for Comn 10
6 Real Time Comn 12
7 Delayed Comn 13
8 Satl Comn Multiple Access Protocols 20
Elecronic Warfare Aspects
9 20
Electronic counter measures tech in satl against threats
10 24
11 Physical Survivability of Satl Comn 26
12 Conclusion 28
13 Acknowledgement 29
14 Bibiliography 30
 3

SATL COMN SECURITY, a result, HF links can some times be rather

VULNERABILITY AND EW tenuous. By comparison, satl comn is far
ASPECTS more reliable. The quality of txn is by satl
offer greater capacity to each link.

1. INTRODUCTION
3. Important applications of satl:
(a) Comn
Satl has been developed to perform a
wide variety of mil tasks –ranging from elec (b) Met
eavesdropping to comn –space sys have (c) Agriculture
played an ever-increasing role in terrestrial
(d) Edn.
mil operations. Space based assets are
‘FORCE MULTIPLIERS’, allowing many (e) Resource mgt.
traditional mil msn to be conducted more (f) Disaster mitigation.
efficiently, although as tech advances space
(g) Def comn.
sys are evolving ‘FORCE ENABLERS’,
opening up new msn possibilities. To cite
just a few examples, satl sys now existing 4. ADVANTAGES OF SATL
or in development are enabling global cont
COMMUNICATIONS Satl communications
of forces, much more improved tac comn,
all weather nav, precise wpns delivery have unique advantages over conventional
independent of rg, and long-rg naval tgtl long distance transmissions. Satl links are
acquisition. unaffected by the propagation variations
that interfere with HF radio. They are also
2. Comn with deployed forces has always free from the high attenuation of wire or
presented the mil cdr with a problem. This cable facilities and are capable of spanning
is especially true in today’s fast moving
long distances. The numerous repeater
world when tps may have to be deployed
anywhere in the world at very short notice. stations required for line-of-sight or tropo
When compared with ordinary terrestrial scatter links are no longer needed. They
radio links the comn satl offers the mil cdr a furnish the reliability and flexibility of
number of advantages. Radio links using the
service that is needed to support a military
VHF or UHF freq rgs are limited to line of
sight. Consequently, for long distance radio operation. Some of the maj advantages are
comn, the HF freq rg is used. Using these listed below:-
freq, sigs are bounced off earth’s
ionosphere, allowing the sig to reach a rxr (a) Capacity The present military
many thousand miles away. These HF links communications satl system is capable of
are subject, however, to the vagaries of the communications between backpack,
ionosphere, which causes the sig to fade. As
 4

airborne, and shipboard terminals. The 5. Several advantages of satl comn for
system is capable of handling thousands of mil applications.
communications channels. a) Wide area coverage.

(b) Reliability Communications satl b) Distance –insensitive.

frequencies are not dependent upon c) Cost effectiveness.
reflection or refraction and are affected only
d) Comn to Remote Areas.
slightly by atmospheric phenomena. The
e) Rapid Extension To New Areas.
reliability of satl communications systems is
limited only by the equipment reliability and f) Highly Flexible Networking.

the skill of operating and maintenance g) Large Capacity.

personnel. h) Reliable long-rg service to moving

(c) Vulnerability Destruction of an platforms like ships, ac and veh.

orbiting vehicle by an en is possible. i) Transmitting Of Comd Cont Info In

However, destruction of a single Combat Area.

communications satl would be quite difficult

and expensive. The cost would be excessive
compared to the tactical advantage gained.
It would be particularly difficult to destroy
an entire multiple-satl system such as the
twenty-six random-orbit satl
currently in use. The earth terminals offer a
more attractive tgtl for physical destruction.
These can be protected by
measures that are taken to protect other
vital installations. A high degree of freedom
from jamming damage is provided by the
highly directional antennas at the earth
6. Mil satl comn are influenced by many
needs not generally considered for
commercial networks. Foremost among
them is ability to survive while facing the en
threats which may include jamming,
system interception, spoofing of comn ch/satl cont
links, physical disruption of space or grnd
sys, and several other effects resulting from
nuclear wpn. The sys also should have the
the same following desirable characteristics: -
(a) Flexibility to provide efficient
service under a wide rg of scenarios and
network Config.

terminals. The wide bandwidth system that (b) Ability to serve a variety of
can accommodate sophisticated anti-jam users with diverse capacities and terminal
sizes.
modulation techniques also lessens
(c) Facility to accommodate a
vulnerability.
large no of low duty cycle mobile users.
 5

(d) Compatibility with other (e) Provide large capacity wide

network/comn media. band comn.
(e) Inter-operability among (f) Provide facility for voice, data and
satcom terminals under different video sig.
jurisdictions.
(g) Earth stn size and cost is low.
(f) Cost effectiveness and
(h) High reliability and flexibility.
improved spectrum utilisation.

9. Unique characteristics of satl comn

BASICS OF COMN SATL
7. Satl comn highlights: Long rg comn
were based on coaxial cable, consisting of
copper tube with single wire conducted in
earlier days. It needed rptr to amplify the
sig every 3 to 5 km. Secondly mw relay
stns, using high pwr directional ae could
provide a rg of 30 to 50 km in one link and
are quite uneconomical for long rg comn
due to large no of rptr.
8. Comn spanning the globe has been
made possible by artificial satl. The first
comn satl was launched over Brazil in Aug
65, named Early Bird, for comn between
North America and Europe. The satl comn is
preferred to other types of long rg comn as:
-
(a) It overcomes the problem of
crowding of earth-based ch, coaxial wire.
(b) The VHF RLOS comn rg is limited by
earth’s curvature.
(c) HF comn through ionosphere is
affected by fading.
(d) Reduced cost per cct.
are:
(a) Large propagation delay.
(b) Very high BW and/or bit rate
available to the user.
(c) Txn cost is independent of the
distance of service.
(d) Satl comn is broadcast in nature and
as such security is required (encryption
techniques).
(e) Satl that do no on-bd processing, but just
echo whatever they hear are called bent pipe satl
also have excellent error rates and can be deployed
almost instantly, a maj consideration for mil comn.
10. Basic Satl Comn Sys: Satl are
primarily used in broadcast comn such as in
traditional radio comn and TV comn. A
comn satl can be thought of as a big mw
rptr in the sky. It contains dozen or so
transponders, each of which listens to some
portion of the spectrum. Each transponder
has a beam that covers some portion of the
earth below it, ranging from a wide beam
10,000km across to a spot beam only 250
km across. Stns within the beam area can
send frames to the satl on the uplink freq,
satl then amplifies the incoming sig and
rebroadcasts it at another freq (downlink)
to avoid interference with the incoming sig.
 6

relative velocity of the satl exactly matches

the rate of rotation of the earth. If such a
11. Subsys on bd a satl
satl is in a circular equatorial orbit, with no
(a) subsys inclination, it appears to remain stationary
(b) Pwr generation subsys in the sky to the grnd-based observer. This
occurs when the satl is approx 36000 kms
(c) Pwr conditioning subsys
above the earth's equator, the so-called
(d) Comd and telemetry subsys geostationary orbit
(e) Thrust subsys 16. Two advantages are derived from
(f) Stabilization Subsys. placing a comn satl in this orbit. First, as
the satl appears stationary in the sky, grnd-
based users do not have to track the satl.
This considerably reduces the complexity of
eqpt needed by a grnd terminal. Second, as
12. Types of comn satl.
predicted by Arthur C Clark in 1945, by
(a) Passive using three such satl it is theoretically
(b) Active possible to achieve coverage of the whole
world. Each satl in Geostationary orbit
covers about 42.3 percent of earth's
13. Passive: These satl are approx 100 surface, so by placing the satl 120 degree
ft diameter. They have large ae, which apart around the Geostationary orbit, every
reflect the incident sig without amplification. point on earth's surface would be in sight of
These are essentially elevated reflectors and at least one satl.
have no elec comps. These are highly
reliable but need costly grnd eqpt.
17. Why Geo-stationary? According
to Keller’s law, the orbital period of a satl
14. Active: These satl carry mw varies as the orbital radius to the 3/2
reception, txn ae & pwr sources. These are powers. Near the surface of the earth, the
essentially mw rptr, reception of energy is period is about 90 minutes. Comn satl at
costly, have sophisticated hardware and are such low altitudes are problematic because
less reliable. Grnd eqpt needed is cheaper. they are within sight of any given grnd stn
for only a short time interval. Satl mainly to
ORBITS USED BY COMN SATL be used for comn purposes therefore have
to be geostationary, i.e. one which appears
stationary relative to the earth, otherwise
15. Geostationary Orbits. The orbit an expensive steer able ae would be needed
used by most comn satl is Geo-stationary to track it. One geostationary satl can comn
orbit. The relative velocity satl moves one-third of the earth in line of sight comn
around earth depend only on its distance mode. Therefore, three equispaced
from the earth. At one particular height the geostationary satl can cover the whole
 7
earth. Examples of geostationary satl are
INSAT (Indian) satl, the world famous
INTELSAT series of satl. In comn through
Geosynchronous satl, sp /msg are carried
by radio waves and travel 36000 km up to
the satl, and the same distance downwards
to the destination. Radio waves are txt at
the speed of light, approx 300,000 km /sec.
Therefore, approx one qtr of a second is
taken by the sig to reach the satl, and again
one qtr of a second to return to earth. It is
this half-second gap, which occurs while
receiving the sp sig.
18. In practice, however, coverage is
limited to the regions below that the
latitude 70 degree North and south. Above
these latitudes the geo-statationary satl has
a very oblique view of earth's surface.
Consequently, it is much more difficult to
get sig in to these areas owing to the
increased atmospheric and grnd noise,
caused by the long sig path through the
atmosphere. In order to provide reliable
comn to users in these extreme latitudes
another orbit is required. The Soviet Union
in particular has considerable land of mass
above 70 degrees North and pioneered the
use of different orbit for it is maj satl comn
sys.
19. The Molniya satl of Soviet uses Polar
orbit and is highly elliptical, inclined at 63
degrees to the earth's equator. This
particular angle of inclination is chosen as it
prevents the apogee and the perigee
wandering around the orbital plane. The
perigee is only about 450 kms from the
earth. But apogee is 40000 kms away. A
satl in this orbit rushes through perigee
before heading away from earth towards
apogee. Near apogee, it slows considerably,
appearing to hang in the sky as it passes
through the point furthest from earth and
begin its descent back towards perigee. As
it falls back towards earth, it speeds up
again, rushing through the perigee and so
beginning its next orbit. It is while the satl
approaches and leaves the apogee that it
travels most slowly and then it can be used
for comn. The period of the Molnia satl is 12
hrs, so each satl will be visible twice a day.
The first apogee is directly above the Soviet
Union and the satl can be used for about
eight hour. The second apogee is actually,
over Canada but the satl is so high in the
sky that it can still be used for comn by
Soviet Union for about six hrs. By careful
positioning, a constellation of three satl
could provide 24-hour coverage, but the
Soviet Union uses four satl in each sys.
20. The United States is also interested in
providing comn, comd and cont in extreme
northerly latitudes, particularly for its polar
nuclear forces. Consequently, the American
Satl Data sys, which forms part of the Air
Force satl comn pgms, also uses satl placed
in such orbits.
21. The txt sig from satl, though coded,
can nevertheless be picked up by en. For
covert, comn it would help if the sig
coverage is restd to the desired recipient.
Ae design is only now achieving sufficient
refinement to provide such a service. In the
past the problem has been solved by using
satl orbiting at much lower altitudes, giving
rise to a third type of orbits, one used
primarily by covert comn satl.
 8

Telecom Union), an agency of the UN. In

particular one of its organs, the
22. The low orbit satl do not have a wide
International Freq Registration Board, is
field of view as satl in geostationary or
responsible for coordinating the choice of
Molniya orbit. It is unlikely that such a satl
freq and orbital locs to avoid mutual
would be within view of a remote
interference effects caused by using the
transmitter and its home stn at the same
same freq on closely spaced satl.
time. Therefore satl are provided with a
means of recording the data txt as they
passed overhead. This data is then played
25. UHF. The beam width of
back as they pass overhead the rxr. This is
an ae is inversely proportional to freq. In
commonly referred to as a store dump sys.
practical terms this means that the higher
These satl do not enjoy the long lifetimes as
the freq used, narrower will be the beam
the other comn satl so they must be
width of the radiation pattern produced.
replaced as required. The Soviet Union, for
The UHF rg of freq is the lowest used for
example, launches veh carrying either six to
satl comn. Its main advantage is to allow
eight such satl twice an year and places
cheap small terminals to be used. The ae
these into orbits inclined at about 65-70
produce a wide beam of radiation;
degrees at an altitude about 1500 kms.
consequently tracking is a relatively simple.
They appear to maintain 24 of these satl
A narrow rg of freq available, however,
operating in such orbits.
means that interference could be a problem.
There is also very little room in the
spectrum to incorporate any anti-jamming
23. To summarize, these three types of
measures.
orbits - geostationary, polar and the low
altitude orbit - are the principal ones used 26. SHF. This is the most common rg of
by Comn satl. The type of sys concerned freq used for satl comn. Typically, the uplink
dictates the choice of orbit of a particular uses a freq in the 7.9-8.4 GHz rg and the
sys. downlink uses a freq in the 7.25-7.75 GHz
rg. The higher freq provide a number of
very significant advantages to the user.
FREQ USED BY COMN SATL First, as mentioned already, the higher freq
allows much narrower beam widths, there
by an increase in the satl EIRP (effective
24. The freq used by comn satl fall into
Isotropic Radiated Pwr); concentrating the
three bands: UHF (300 MHz-3 GHz), SHF
satl pwr over a small area. Furthermore,
(3-30 GHz) and EHF (30-300 GHz). Each of
much higher capacity links can be provided,
these bands offers the user certain
with sufficient bandwidth to incorporate
advantages and disadvantages, and these
some anti-jamming measures. There is
will be considered in some detail. The use of
always a trade-off, however, and in this
these freq must, however, be coordinated
case it is the low –to –moderate attenuation
between all the users operating satl comn.
in the atmosphere which SHF suffers.
This is done by the ITU (International
 9

27. EHF. Typically, this is 43.52-45.5
GHz for the uplink and 20.2-21.2 GHz for
the downlink. The advantages of using the
EHF rg of freq are derived principally from
the very much wider bandwidths available
to the user. Even higher data rate and
considerable anti-jamming measures can be
incorporated in EHF links. Very high gain ae
can be used, facilitating the use of steer-
able spot beams. Tech for use at these freq
is still under development, however and
consequently the hard ware is still
expensive. This will naturally limit the use of
this freq rg by mil users. Another
disadvantage is the high atmospheric
attenuations of these freq, particularly by
cloud and rain.
30. With current tech, it is unwise to
have satl spaced much closer than 2 deg in
the 360 deg equatorial plane, to avoid
interference. i.e. at most 180
Geosynchronous comn satl in the sky at
once and thus several data streams going
up and down simultaneously. Alternatively,
two or more satl could occupy one orbit slot
if they operate at different freq.
31. To prevent total chaos in the sky,
there have been international agreements
about who may use which orbit slots and
freq. The main commercial bands are as
follows:

Band C Ku Ka
28. Considerable advantages accrue
from the ability of various satl in a sys to Freq 4/6 11/14 20/30
talk to one another directly, passing data
between themselves without having to go Downlink 3.7-4.2 11.7- 17.7-
through a grnd stn. Further advantage can
be derived by preventing such cross-links (GHz) 12.2 21.7
from being received by terminals back on
earth. The attenuation profile of the Uplink 5.925- 14.0- 27.5-
atmosphere shows a tremendous peak at 60 (GHz) 6.425 14.5 30.5
GHz, due to energy being absorbed by
resonance of molecular oxygen. Problems Terrestrial Rain Rain;
Consequently, using 60 GHz for the cross- interference eqpt
links will go a long way to provide security
cost
for the data being passed.
The principal satl bands.

29. Freq Of Operation: Mw freq are

used for satl comn to:-
VSAT COMN
(a) Penetrate ionosphere.
32. The development of low cost micro
(b) Handle wide band sig. stns called VSATs (Very small aperture
(c) Enable use of high gain Tx/Rx ae terminals) has provided comn to remote
onbd satl areas also. These tiny terminals have 1 m
ae and can put out about 1 watt of pwr. In
 10
many VSAT sys, the micro stns do not have
enough pwr to communicate directly with
one another. Instead a special grnd stn, the
hub, with a large, high gain ae is needed to
relay traffic between VSATs. In this mode of
operation, either the sender or the rxr has a
large ae and a powerful amplifier. The
tradeoffs is a longer delay in return for
having cheaper user stns (540 msec for a
VSAT sys with a hub)
33. Advantages:
(a) Provisioning comn to remote area.
(b) Point to multipoint comn.
(c) High reliability of 99.5% uptime as
compared to at best 95% offered by
terrestrial lines due to very few or negligible
point failures.
(d) Operational costs are lower as
compared to leased lines.
(e) Small in size, transportable.
(f) Within an existing network new sites
can be commissioned rapidly with relatively
little effort.
(g) Very useful in natural
calamities/provisioning of emergency comn.
(h) Require very little terrestrial
infrastructure.
34. Mil Applications: Army has a VSAT
network of 32 terminals and a hub. The ae
dia is 1.8 m.
(a) Each VSAT can provide 1 sp (voice)
and 1 data connectivity.
(b) It can be interfaced with ASCON
(c) Temporary comn link (mobile) for
connecting any no of remote locs.
(d) Link temporary locs with the main
network.
LOW EARTH SATL SYS FOR COMN
35. The main characteristic of LEO satl
are:
(a) They come under a class of satl
known as non-Geostationary satl and are
capable of tackling the problem of high cost
of satl and high delay in satl comn. A delay
in comn of 270- 540 msec is intolerable in
time dependent comn like sp comn. Delay
can be reduced if satl are placed in a lower
orbit, roughly to half if orbit is reduced to
half of Geostationary orbit.
(b) Inter satl distance in GEO is also
high. This aggravates the delay problem of
GEO, particularly for comn beyond the
coverage area of a single GEO.
(c) They use small dish ae, which means
a lower cost. Moreover launching cost and
on bd pwr reqmts are high in GEO.
(d) LEO is not stationary relative to
earth, it is mobile. They zip into and out of
the view quickly. LEOs can be assumed to
be trans-rxrs as in cellular concept. A
number of LEOs can therefore be connected
to serve comn purpose so that as soon as
one satl went out of view, another would
replace it.
(e) It uses ideas from cellular radio, but
with a twist. Normally, the cells are fixed
but the users are mobile. Here, each satl
has a substantial no of spot beams that
scan the earth as the satl moves. Thus both
the cells and the users are mobile in this
sys, but the Hanover techniques used for
 11
cellular radio are equally applicable to the
case of the cell leaving the user as to the
case of the user leaving the cell.
(f) The satl are to be positioned at an
altitude of 750 km, in circular polar orbits.
The uplinks and downlinks would operate in
the L band at 1.6 GHz, making it possible to
communicate with a satl using a small
battery pwr device. Msg received by one
satl but destined for a remote one would be
relayed among the satl in the Ka band.
36. A low earth orbit satl sys consists of a
constellation of many satl in circular orbits
at altitudes ranging from 500-1500 Km. The
satl either can be inclined or polar orbits, or
a combination of the two. The coverage
area and duration depend essentially on
number of satl in the constellation, their
altitudes and their orbit inclinations. Such
satl constellation can achieve either global
or regional coverage, either real-time or
delayed comn. Flexibility, robustness to
failure, true global coverage and capability
to reuse freq more effectively than GEO are
key advantages of LEO sys.
37. The mil need for highly survivable
comn sys cannot be satisfied with several
very vulnerable geostationary satl sys This
has led to the study of multiple satl sys
providing the high degree of comn sys
redundancy. Failure of one or several satl
does not itself imply the complete loss of
the sys.
38. On the other hand, commercial satl
comn has moved to the mobile domain and
is spurred on by an expansion in service
due to continuing tech advancements. It
has been realised that geostationary sys are
not always suitable to deal with this
evolution in services. In fact geostationary
satl have poor performance over high
altitude regions as well as in urban areas
were min site angles required for mobile
comn are very high. Moreover, the growing
cost of such satl, coupled with increasing
capacity and mass, and the congestion of
the geostationary orbit has led to the
considerations of LEO comn satl sys for
commercial applications. The main
characteristics of LEO sys lies in the use of a
large no of small satl easily designed and
launched, either by recently developed
small launchers or by multiple launch
capabilities of heavy launchers such as
Arians or Space Shuttle.
APPLICATION OF LEO SATL FOR
COMN
39. The renewed interest in multi-satl
comn sys is not prompted by a motive of
competition with conventional GEO and MEO
sys, but more by the increasing demand for
personal comn coupled with the advance in
LEO satl tech and low cost launchers. The
comn services that can be provided by such
sys are interactive voice (telephony) low
rate encoded video and data transfer. In
addition, these sys can offer position
determination services.
40. LEO satl can provide local, regional
and global comn. “Local” comn refers to
limited in distance, for instances few tens of
kms. “Regional” comn means comn over a
specific region of the world, such as a group
of countries or a continent. “Global” comn
refer to worldwide-established links. The
 12
comn can be classified in to two main
categories:
(a) Real time comn.
(b) Delayed comn.
41. This distinction is essential for
identifying the types of services that can be
performed, since it will affect the sys
design. However it is possible to mix the
two concepts within the constraints of a cost
effective design. For instance a LEO satl sys
can be well adapted to providing real time
local and regional comn but only delayed
global comn.
REAL-TIME COMN
42. Real time services provide nearly
instantaneous transfer of info from the
source to the destination such as
audio/video broadcasting, voice telephony,
audio or video conferencing and data
exchange. Telephony, conferencing and
some types of data exchanges require
interactivity, where as audio/ video
broadcasting does not. Although real-time
services offer time continuous comn
between users, this does not mean that the
sys offers a permanent link between users.
The info can be txt in the form of packets,
which are independently routed in a similar
way as within packet switching network
(PSN). However a bound is placed on the
txn delay, depending on the type of service.
43. Local comn can be provided by world
wide or regional comn sys. But they can
also be established over a single satl visible
from both users simultaneously. If the satl
links are not part of a larger network, the
comn is limited at most the common
visibility time, for instance a few minutes.
Radio amateurs, using for instance the
Oscar series of satl, have practiced this for
quiet a long time now.
44. The use of LEO constellation can be
envisioned in the frame of real time comn
either for regions which are poorly equipped
with other comn means, or for regions were
comn network are already well developed,
and where the satl network appears as a
complementary sys. This is the service
proposed by MOTOROLA in their IRIDIUM
project. The potential users are very
numerous, ranging from developing
countries with no telephone service, to
areas where mobile comn are readily
available either as a backup or an extension
of terrestrial or geostationary satl network.
Some examples of LEO are
(a) Iridium of Motorola.
(b) Ellipso of Fairchild.
(c) Project 21 of Inmarsat.
(d) Globalstar of Qualcomm.
45. Besides commercial applications,
many mil real time comn programmes are
based on the use of satl constellations .The
aims of these programmes are to provide
highly survivable comn sys with the great
versatility and flexibility, using low cost satl,
launchers and grnd cont.
 13

DELAYED COMN provides an instantaneous coverage area as

described by the figure below:

46. Delayed comn are restd to data msg

txn, implying a storage of the msg before
its del. The msg can be of different nature:
E-Mail, Digitised Voice, Images or computer
data etc. A typical msg routeing is as He1
follows: the end user enters his msg into his
terminal. The terminal waits for a satl to be
in view, and then transmits the msg, which
is stored on bd the satl. The storage can Re1 
also be accomplished in relay earth stns
distributed all over the world. Finally the
msg is delivered to the end terminal and
stored until the user wishes retrieve it. The
type of link can either be half duplex or full
duplex or simplex in the case of data Figure 1-Instantaneous coverage area
of a satl Re is the earth's radius,E1 min
collection. Global or regional coverage can elevation angle, He1 satl altitude and 
be achieved either with a single satl or with the angular coverage.
a constellation, with time delays and
coverage depending on the sys config. (This area depends on Satl altitude HE :
Min elevation angle E1 required for
users located at the edge of the coverage
47. There is a good deal of experience as
area.)
a result of the operation of sys which
provide data collection and position
determination for search and rescue (b) The max instantaneous coverage
services which is an experimental digital area depends on the satl altitudes. Any loc
store and forward comn sys for data on the earth’s surface within this area would
exchanges using LEO micro satl. be in ‘geometrical visibility’ to the satl.
However for practical operation owing to the
SERVICE REQMTS potential blockage of radio waves by
obstacles, one should associate the
48. A number of features of interest to
instantaneous coverage with the concept of
the user of the LEO satl comn sys are listed
‘radio-freq visibility’, which entails a min
and discussed below:
elevation angle.

(a) Coverage area. The coverage area

(c) The max distance Dmax between
defines the regions of the world in which the
users located within the instantaneous
comn sys is to be used. It is expressed in
coverage, at opposite edges of the satl foot
terms of geographical areas. Each satl
 14
print is a function of Radius of earth (6378
km), min elevation angle E1 and satl
altitude angular coverage at centre of earth.
(d) Distance Dmax is of importance to
the user as it governs the extent of the
zone for local comn. It also governs the
time interval during which the satl can be
used as a relay from a given terminal.
Moreover, if regional and global coverage
result from the combination of the individual
coverage of the satl in space and time,
then, the service zone depends on the
overall constellation config. It may be seen
that one would benefit from as large as
possible an instantaneous coverage area.
However, a trade off is to be exercised
between a large instantaneous coverage
area and a high link budget performance,
which requires a narrow ae beam width.
(e) Throughput. Of importance to the
user are:
(i) The rate at which bits are actually
txt. This is governed by the link budget.
(ii) The ability of the sys to transfer info.
The actual throughput of an info transfer
from a source to a destination is governed
by the network load. As the load increases,
so does the txn delay which may exceed the
acceptable limit for real time comn, thus
leading to congestion. The txn delay may
however still be acceptable for delayed
comn. Its value will then depend on the
msg length and the number of msg each
terminal transmits per unit of time.
49. Txn Delay. The txn delay is the
required time for the info generated by the
sending user to its destination. It builds up
from txn delay at each node of network. For
real time telephone comn, the txn time
delay is dictated by CCIR and must not
exceed 400 ms user-to-user end. This
implies a time continuous coverage of the
service zone with specific constellation
config and networking. However, the large
and time varying distance between the
comn entities cause significant propagation
delays that in turn affect issues such as
multi-access comn, network synchronisation
and protocols for handling time-critical data.
For delayed comn sys, the txn time delay
may be variable, and can rg from few
seconds to several hrs, depending on the
sys config, the traffic load, and the relative
loc of the users. The different delays
involved are listed below. These different
delays must be evaluated for each sys
config:
(a) Visibility delay. In the case of a
non-contiguous coverage, once the user has
stored the msg in his terminal, the terminal
waits for a relay satl to be in view. Any
relay in the network, be it a satl or an earth
stn, also has to wait for visibility of next
relay.
(i) Access delay. This is the time during
which the accessing phase is going on, once
a relay is in view.
(ii) Data Transfer Delay. This is the
time required for data transfer from a
 15
source terminal to a satl, a relay to another
one, or to the end terminal.
(iii) Storage Delay. This is the time
during which the data are stored either
onbd the satl or at earth stns.
50. Service Quality. The service quality
deals with the level of confidence that a
user can expect for the delivery of the info
in the due time and this relates to link
quality. The info may not delivered in the
due time, either because it is not working
properly and the info is lost or because the
acceptable txn delay is exceeded. Non-
delivery of the info relates to sys
availability.
(a) Link Quality. The link quality is the
ability of the sys to provide info exchange
from end to end, within acceptable bounds
of quality. The quality, for digital comn, is
measured by the Bit Error Rate (BER). BER
of interest is that of the overall link from
user to user, which depends on the BER of
individual links comprising the total link The
number of error free seconds (EFS) may
also be a quality parameter.
(b) Sys Availability. The sys availability
is usually defined as the availability of the
link from the transit terminal to receive
terminal.
51. Cost of The Service. The cost of the
service is depended on the investment and
operational cost of the sys, and the rate of
the return on the investment decided by the
sys operator. The investment cost depends
on factors such as the number of satl, the
satl architecture and tech, the type of
launcher and the launching procedure etc.
The operational cost includes the cost of
maintaining the constellation integrity,
which means replacing failed satl, and cont
the orbit, if required. Owing to the large
number of satl, the cost of orbit cont may
be large. However, orbit cont allows the set
up of phased constellations, which exhibits
similar performance compared to random
constellations, but with a smaller number of
satl. Hence there is a potential trade off
between investment and operational cost.
LEO CONSTELLATIONS ORBITAL
CONFIG
52. Design Parameters The
constellation design affects the complexity
and cost of the overall sys. It is possible to
synthesize a model for optimisation of the
overall cost as a function of various link
parameters, mobile terminal and spacecraft
complexity. The design parameters of a
constellation are:
(a) Number of satl.
(b) Number of orbital planes.
(c) Inclination of the orbital
planes.
(d) Relative spacing of the orbital
planes.
(e) Number of satl in each orbital
plane.
(f) Relative phasing of the satl of
the same orbital plane.
 16
(g) Relative phasing of satl of
adjacent orbital plane.
(h) Orbital height of each satl or
its corresponding orbital period.
53. The choice of a config depends on the
coverage area of interest (global or zonal)
and on the geometric link availability
(continuous or not) dictated by the service.
54. The coverage of equatorial regions
can be achieved with equatorial orbits and
the coverage of medium latitude regions
with inclined orbits. Polar regions can be
covered by Polar Orbits or by Highly
Inclined Orbits (inclination greater than 70
degrees). A given coverage can also be
achieved by any combination of the above
three types of orbits (Equatorial, Polar and
Inclined).
55. The geometric link availability over a
given coverage area depends essentially on
the altitude of the satl, the number of satl,
their repartition on orbital planes and their
phasing. Continuous global coverage can be
achieved with polar orbits only, provided
that a sufficient number combination of
inclined orbits can also provide a continuous
global coverage. This can also be obtained
with a mixture of polar, inclined and
equatorial orbits.
56. Phased Constellations. Phased
constellations are made of satl, which have
constant relative positions in time. This
implies orbit cont of each satl. Many phase
constellations have been studied for global
and continuous earth coverage, leading to
different optimal configs, depending on the
optimality criteria used (number of satl,
redundancy etc.) Phased constellations
enable optimal solutions, but the use of
orbital contled satl has important
drawbacks: the satl are larger since they
require ergols and thrusters, and a cont stn
network has to be provided.
57. Random Constellations. With out
orbit cont, any initially designed phase
constellation becomes random due to in-
orbit injection imprecision and the satl orbit
drift as a result of orbit perturbations.
NETWORK CONCEPTS &
VULNERABILITY
58. Network Topology. Though the
choice of the constellation is crucial, it
cannot be made without appropriate
network topology of the comn sys, which is
closely related to the type of service to be
provided. For this reason, network
topologies must be investigated separately
for real time and delayed comn sys.
(a) Real time Comn. Real time comn
sys require a constellation config that can
provide a continuous coverage during comn
over the regions where the users are
located. The network architecture will be
different for local and global coverage real-
time sys. Three basic concepts are
described below:
(i) Local comn. In this, the comn is
possible only if users are located in the satl
coverage area simultaneously. The satl
behaves as a simple relay between the
users, or between the mobile users and the
fixed stn connected to a terrestrial network
 17

(fig 2 below). But as the satl moves around
its orbit, the users (or the stn) do not
remain continuously in the satl coverage
area (fig 3 below). The time during which
the comn can be established and
maintained depend on:
(aa) Constellation Config.
(ab) The absolute loc of users.
(ac) The relative loc of users.
(ad) The size of ae footprint.
(ae) The chl capacity.
footprint, or between user and a grnd stn,
or between grnd stns only. The grnd stns
can also be connected to a terrestrial
network. This config enables the expansion
of an initial local service to a global one, by
simply addition of grnd stns and satl. The
number of satl and relay grnd stns depends
on the:
(aa) Constellation config.
(ab) The size of satl ae footprint.
(ac) The capacity of grnd stns.
(ad) The capacity of satl.

Figure 4-Real time comn provided

Figure 2-Real time Figure 3-As the satl
comn possible if moves on users do
the users are not remain
located in the satl continuously in the
coverage area coverage area
simultaneously
(ii) Local or Global Comn. Refer to
figure4 below. The constellation is supposed
to provide a continuous coverage in time
over a given service zone so that a user can
always see at least one satl. Moreover a
sufficient number of grnd relay stns are
distributed over the entire service zone, so
that at least one stn is located in the
coverage area of a satl above the zone. The
satl behaves as a simple radio relay either
directly between users loc in the same
via relay grnd stns distributed all
over the service zone
(iii) Inter satl links. This also can be
used either for local or global coverage
areas. The constellation is supposed to
provide a continuous coverage in time over
a given service zone so that a user can
always see at least one satl. The satl
behave as relays, either directly between
users located in same foot print or between
users via inter-satl links The inter-satl link
can either optical or radio link. It implies in
both cases a precise and continuous
knowledge of loc of each satl. The network
mgt can be either centralised in grnd stn or
distributed on bd satl. The users can be
fixed, mobile or affiliated to grnd stns
connected to the terrestrial network.
 18
Figure 5-Real time
comn are provided
via inter-satl links
(b) Delayed Comn. Delayed comn
using LEO constellations do not require a
continuous coverage of the service zones.
On the other hand, they are limited to
digitised msg txns, which must be stored
before delivery, either on bd satl or on grnd
stns. On bd storage increases the
complexity and cost of satl and can limit the
sys capacity, whereas grnd storage may be
more flexible since the number of stns and
their capacity can be modified in time.
Possible three basic different configs are
discussed below:
(i) Onbd storage only. Refer to the
figure6 below. As soon as a user located in
a satl footprint, he can send a msg
containing the end user’s address and info
data to the satl, where it is stored. When
the satl comes in view of the end user, the
msg is delivered. The users may be mobile
users or fixed stns connected to a terrestrial
network. The service zone may be regional
or global, depending on the constellation
config. If the users are situated in the same
footprint, real time txn may be envisaged.
But the storage capacity on bd is the maj
dimensioning parameter of the sys, since
the length and the number of the msg that
can be stored at the same time and the
storage duration of each msg determine the
sys performance.
Figure 6-Delayed data txn sys using on-
bd storage
(ii) Simple relay satl. This sys is
described as shown in the figure7. This
scenario makes use of the simple relay satl
between the users and grnd stns. They are
both located in the service zone, and the
grnd stn is equipped with storage capacity.
The user can send a msg if there is at least
one satl above him and can relay comn to a
grnd stn. The msg is then stored in the grnd
stn until the stn can communicate with a
satl in view of the end user or another grnd
stn closer to the end user’s loc. The number
of stns, their loc and constellation config are
the key parameters of the sys design.
Nevertheless, the service zone can
gradually extended to overall coverage of
the zone, of the constellation by addition of
grnd stns where necessary. The stn storage
capacity can also be extended as the traffic
grows. These stns may be connected to the
terrestrial network. Real time txn can be
 19
implemented for users situated in the same
footprint.
Figure 7-Delayed data txn using relay satl
and grnd stns, user sends msg via relay
stns where it is stored; when a satl in
view of the end user and the grnd stn
simultaneously the msg is delivered.
Figure 8-Delayed data txn using
on-bd storage and inter-satl
links, the user send msg is stored
on bd the satl until an inter satl
link is possible with a satl in view
(iii) On-Bd storage and Inter-satl
of the end user.
links. As it is evident from the figure8 the
txn scheme of the msg is identical as in
case of first scenario, but the msg delivery
scheme is different. The msg is stored on bd
the satl until it can be re-txt to another satl
in view of the end user. This solution
reduces the txn delay compared to the first
one, or the number of satl for an unchanged
txn time delay but requires more complex
satl and network mgt.
59. ROUTEING CONSIDERATIONS.
Network topology of a LEO satl comn
sys is dynamic since the satl move in
accordance with the laws of orbital
mechanics and the earth stns rotate with
the earth’s surface. The nodes of the
network move in and out of rg of each other
or are eclipsed by the earth. Therefore, as
connectivity is time varying and the
routeing table is not fixed; it seems
inevitable to use adaptive routeing.
(a) Centralised adaptive Routeing. A
central cont facility (probably a relay earth
stn) where all of the routeing info is stored
continually checks the loc of the terminals
and satl. This can be done by the means of
specific signalling ch. A continually updated
routeing table in the central cont facility
provides info as to the loc of the destination
and decides upon the route for onward txn
and then proceeds to transmit it around the
network. This method of routeing allows for
a simpler routeing algorithm but the danger
of the sys is that it will result in high
signalling traffic density and reqmt of a
super fast computing central controller. The
sys vulnerability to failure also increased.
The sys relies on the correct operation of a
single earth stn. Having a back-up central
cont facility within the network may reduce
this vulnerability to failure.
(b) Distributed Adaptive Routeing. A
dynamic routeing mechanism via distributed
processing can be used such that each node
in the network (satl or relay earth stns)
individually updates its routeing table and
selects the most cost effective route. The
local routeing table at each node would
 20
update depending on the effective
connectivity at a given time with the other
nodes. The devolution of the routeing
decision is then spread among the routeing
nodes. With this arrangement, a decision
could be made locally as to the direction
that the msg will take, and thus the
signalling capacity can be reduced. This
however mean that the satl will be more
complicated and more expensive, as they
will require more memory and processing
pwr to calculate msg routes. To avoid this
necessity, the routing could be performed at
relay earth stns only. Devolution of the
routeing decisions at a local level would
mean that there would be reduced
likelihood of overall sys failure if only one
node should fail. The sys will be able to
adapt to a failure and reroute the msg to
the destination.
(c) Flooding. Flooding consist of the
forwarding msg on all of possible link to the
destination. There are, however, problems
associated with this routeing method. The
msg may be forwarded forever if it forms
some form of the loop in the network. The
very nature of a flooding algorithm means
the msg will be received by the destination
at the earliest possible time at the expense
of incurring very high traffic in the network.
The occurrence of high traffic could in turn
cause congestion if the network is not
designed to cope up with it. Work has been
performed on the possibility of using
flooding as a method for routeing msg in a
dynamic satl comn network. In a network
that is rapidly changing, the use of a
flooding routeing method greatly simplifies
the problems of routeing, as there is no
necessity to keep a track of different point
on the network. If there is a large no of satl
(i.e. the network becomes complicated)
then flooding method become viable
solution. The method require very little
overhead, as no routeing info is gathered
and put into the msg header. Alternatively
flooding can be used only during initial route
establishment during a call. Selective
flooding uses the same methods as
described in flooding above except that
some info about the loc of the destination
terminal is already known by the routeing
node. This allows the node to flood only a
certain section of the network in order to
get the msg to its destination.
60. Interface with Terrestrial
Network. The interconnection of the satl
into the terrestrial comn network creates
various problems because of the difference
between the physical layers of the two sys.
The connection is done via a gateway earth
stn, which performs the task such as:
(b) Protocol conversion.
(c) Flow Cont
(d) Addressing and Routeing.
(e) Packet Fragmentation.
(f) Packet Sequencing.
SATL MULTIPLE ACCESS TECH
61. Basic multiple access sys is classified
in to Freq Division Multiple Access (FDMA),
Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Code
Division Multiple Access (CDMA), and Space
Division Multiple Access (SDMA).
Combination of access scheme are also
possible, and it seems likely that any access
method used in LEO comn network will be
some hybrid of this.
62. FDMA. Freq division multiple access
is the division of freq resource. Each access
freq is allocated to a user and the total
number of possible freq (the band width)
limits the possible number of access. One of
the advantages of the FDMA is its
independence of the need of
synchronisation of the overall network.
 21

63. TDMA. that it is very vulnerable in an interference

environment.
(a) Random TDMA (Aloha type). In
Aloha multiple access, the users transmit
info randomly over the same freq band in
(c) CDMA. CDMA sys are also referred to
time bursts. Hence there is no guarantee for
as Spread Sys Multiple Access (SSMA) since
data reception because of possible collision
the sigs are spread over a wide freq band.
with other accessing users. Aloha access
Two spread sys techniques may be used:
may not be well adapted to real- time
Direct Sequence (DSSS), or Pseudo Noise
comn.
(PNSS) and non-coherent Freq Hopping
Modulation. In this access method each user
is allocated a specific code, and the code
(b) Synchronised TDMA. In
defines how the sig spread across the freq
synchronised TDMA, all the users transmit
spectrum with time. The rxr must know the
info over the same freq band in time bursts.
code so that it can de-spread the sig. In
The time slots are interleaved and
CDMA sys, the entire txn bandwidth is
synchronised so that the users do not
available to all the users all the time. This
overlap in the time domain. The use of the
allows the users to access the ch randomly,
synchronised TDMA for overall LEO satl
which eliminates the network
comn network requires a network-wide
synchronisation reqmts. A maj advantage
synchronising sys. The linking of each
to spread spectrum as an access technique
individual terminal to a reference clock so
is resistance against jamming and other
that time division multiple access could be
interference. Moreover, a CDMA scheme is
used is quiet a formidable task and adds to
not sensitive to Doppler shift as the sigs are
the complexity of both terminal and satl. It
spread across the freq spectrum.
is, however, possible to envisage some form
of time division multiple accesses if the
synchronisation is not network wide but
only exists for short time period between
the satl and the transmitting and receiving
terminal. This would then allow the
possibility of time slot reservations during
the period when transmitters and rxrs are
synchronised. Another drawback of TDMA is
 22

ELECRONIC WARFARE ASPECTS: IN more robust and flexible sys for mil
MIL SATL COMN SYS applications.

64. Until recently, the development of mil INTERCEPT by Satl

satcom sys was mainly confined to fixed
terminals to carry wide band traffic at high
data rates using large aes The need for tac 66. It is particularly difficult to intercept
mil comn have given rise to the
developments of small road and air the satl comn as such despite the footprints
transportable terminals which can be being available in the larger area due to the
quickly shifted to a new loc and deployed
within short time under field conditions to following:-
provide secure and reliable comn between (a) Various kinds of modulation tech
the moving units Examples of such
terminals include the road/ air transportable being used,
satcom terminals developed by Defence (b) Various kinds of media access tech,
Electronic Applications Laboratory,
Dehradun. These terminals can be (c) Error correction tech used and
transported to remote areas along with (d) Modern digital comn tech used for
moving forces and comn can be established
within a shot time under hostile encryption.
environment and adverse climatic
conditions.
67. Battlefield Surveillance.
However the satl can effectively be
65. In order to meet the demands of
used for achieving the battle fd
comd and cont of highly mobile units/
moving platforms such as the ships and the transparency. Battle fd svl is important.
ac with modest bw reqmt, satl sys built The art of combat has been to discern en
around lower freq (UHF) evolved to fill the intentions as early as possible, deceiving
critical need of tac comn. UHF sys, utilising
the en of own intentions and fighting the en
smaller ae with wider beam widths do not
require high accuracy beam pointing from a distance. India need to know exactly
mechanism and can easily accommodated what the en is doing and what he is about
on mobile platforms. Although, UHF to do, where the attacks are likely to
terminals can be made small and relatively
originate and in what str and the size and
inexpensive the available bw and degree of
protection from interfering source is limited. positioning of en's reserves. Battle fd cdr
The desire to improve satcom service to would always be interested in getting real
both the strat and tac users has led to the time info Satl would help provide just that
use of higher freq bands. With the growing
by becoming an all seeing eye in Space.
op dply of satcom sys several new reqmt
are influencing the future devp to realise
 23
Svl and Recce by Satl
68. The Svl required can roughly be
divided into three zones, the area in the
immediate vicinity of the infantry, the area
forward of the battle line to a depth, of say,
20 kms and a much larger area behind the
en lines, primarily to observe what
reinforcement are being brought up, to the
depth of 40 to 50 kms or even more. Three
main phases in any svl situation are
detection, recognition and identification. To
obtain full identification it may well be
necessary to see the tgt, either with the
naked eye, or by thermal imagers, image
intensifiers, radar or remote ground
sensors. Recce from air can take two forms,
strat and tac. Strategic recce is the
constant watch from the skies, which is
carried out both in peace and in war to
ascertain what the en, or potential en, is
doing far beyond his frontiers. Tact recce is
for use in war to find out what he is doing
imdly in or behind the battle area. In times
of strained relations, there is a partial
overlap between the two. For example, it is
probably highly desirable to look behind the
potential en's front-line, for say, 100 kms.
69. Chronology of Spy Satls
(a) December 1953: U.S. Air Force,
which had been split off from the Army in
1947, pulls together all its various satl
efforts into a single program known as WS-
117L.
(b) October 1956: Lockheed Air craft
Corp. gets the first WS 117L production
contract.
(c) Feb. 28, 1958: The Defense
Department officially cancels the recce-satl
segment of WS-117L in an ef fort to plug
security leaks. The project, now carrying
the name "Corona," undergoes what the
Central Intelligence Agency calls "covert
reactivation"Ñ only a small number of
government officials, Lockheed employees
and employees at other defence contracting
companies are briefed on the new effort.
(d) Jan. 21, 1959: The first attempt to
launch a rocket designed to carry the
Corona satl, assembled at the Hiller Aircraft
plant in Menlo Park, ends in failure 60
minutes before blast off at Vandenberg Air
Force Base near Santa Barbara when
explosive bolts are triggered accidentally,
damaging the rocket.
(e) Feb. 28,1959: Discoverer 1, the
cover name for Corona rkt, lifts off from
Vandenberg and disappears. No one knows
what happened, but it is believed to have
crashed some where near the South Pole.
 24
(f) April 13, 1959: Discoverer ll goes
into orbit and successfully ejects a test
capsule. But, because of a timing error, the
capsule lands somewhere on the island of
Spitsbergen, north of Norway, instead of
hitting its tgt near Hawaii. The capsule is
never found; CIA officials suspect it may
have been snatched by the Soviets.
(g) June 3: Discoverer lll, carrying four
mice, crashes in the Pacif ic Ocean shortly
after takeoff.
(h) June 25: Discoverer IV carries the
first Corona camera, caned. KH-1, an
abbreviation of the code name Keyhole. The
rock, et fails to reach orbit. Three more
launches in August and November also are
busts.
(j) 1966: Corona reaches its prime.
From May 1966 through February 1971, 32
launches in a row are either partially or
completely successful.
(k) June 15, 1971: A new-generation spy
satl called "Hexagon" is launched from
Vanden berg. It carries a KH-9 camera,
capable of exposing more film and covering
a wider area on the ground.
(l) Feb. 22, 1995: President Clinton
signs an executive officer declassifying
Corona, the first time the United States has
re leased a significant amount of
information about its spy satl programs.
ELECTRONIC COUNTER MEASURES
TECH IN SATL AGAINST THREATS
70. The reqmt to provide survivability of
comn under different types of threats
distinguishes mil satcom sys from the
commercial ones. Satl comn have an
intrinsic vulnerability to jamming and
unauthorised interception. Jamming of satl
transponders can be a serious threat.
Downlink jamming from an aircraft or
similar platform is also possible. Various
techniques are used on-bd the satl and/or
grnd terminals to counter these threats. The
measures which are most commonly used
or employed are the Spread Spectrum
Techniques and the use of ae nulling to
exclude the possible jammer from having
visibility to the satl. Techniques for ensuring
low probability of interception (LPI) and
complex encircling methods are also
employed for mil satcom sys.
71. SPREAD SPECTRUM SYS Spread-
spectrum sys is an anti-jam technique,
which relies on the user, spreading his sig
with a spreading function, which cannot be
replicated by en. The rxr performs the
inverse de-spreading operation. The
advantage given to the wanted sig over the
interference is called ‘process gain’ and is
defined as the ratio of the spread bandwidth
to the sig bandwidth. There are two basic
spread spectrum techniques, i.e. Direct
Sequence (also called Pseudo-noise) and
Freq Hopping. Both the techniques have
their own advantages and some times are
used together to obtain high anti-jam
margins when the available spread –
 25

bandwidth is sufficiently large. Conventional be integrated as a multiple beam ae,

straight through satl rptr do not provide which employs number of feeds sharing
adequate anti-jam capability to support a common dish reflector or else a wave-
comn between small terminals under guide lens structure.
jamming. When the jammer is much
74. ANTENNE DESIGN. Ae tech will
stronger than the user, the jammer
be critical to future developments. In
captures almost all satl EIRP. With spread-
addition to Downlink and ae
spectrum (pseudo-noise or freq hopping)
developments including the electrically
modulation, the tolerable jammer to sig pwr
steered multi beam ae, sophisticated ae
ratio (JSR) depends upon the processing
arrays will be required for uplink
gain and other parameters like limiter
reception. These may provide jammer
suppression and required Eb/No etc.
rejection together with high gain and
Increasing the spread bandwidth to improve
perhaps freq re-use on-bd. Adaptive
anti-jam performance is beneficial only as
algorithms will discriminate against
long as the downlink SNR is not too small.
jamming or interference and wanted
72. In order to provide significant sigs may need to be distinguished by a
enhancement in anti-jam capability, there secure spread spectrum format.
substantial merit in separating the uplink Developments may be anticipated in
sigs from uplink jamming within the rptr. phased array ae for spacecrafts.
This is possible if the uplink sig is first de-
hopped and demodulated in the satl and 72. EHF TECH. The bulk of mil satcom
then re-hopped and re-modulated for sys presently operate at SHF. Maj
downlink txn to protect against downlink exploitation of EHF band is envisaged in
jamming. future milsatcom sys. The use of EHF
offers many advantages to mil users.
73. ANTENNE NULLING Anti-jam
The milsatcom freq band is allocated as
performance can be further enhanced by
uplink 43.5 to 45.5 GHz and downlinks
the receive ae nulling technique-bd the
28.2 to 21.2 GHz. The 2 GHz uplink
satl by providing spatial discrimination
bandwidth will give increasing
between the user and possibly jammer
processing gain, which may be further
loc If the satl receive ae produces high
enhanced due to on-bd de-spreading.
gain in the direction of users and low
For ECCM purpose, the EHF will have
gain towards the jammer then the
further advantage as EIRP of small
tolerable JSR will increase by the
terminals increases with freq while for
difference in gain between the two
large terminals (jammer), tends to
directions. If one uses EHF, then this
reach practical limits. The wider
difference in gain can be between 20 to
bandwidth at EHF will also allow higher
30 dB depending upon the freq and the
traffic capacity and relative freedom
type of ae used. The concept may be
from constraints on orbital spacing of
extended further by providing an array
satl. Even small tac ae will be capable of
of spot beam ae with proper selection of
narrow beam widths. The smaller size
appropriate coverage region. This can
 26
and weight of hardware will encourage
use of more sophisticated on-bd
adaptive ae. The cost of developments
of advanced tech in EHF is expected to
fall as and when few countries start
operating EHF satl comn within next few
years.
73. OPTICAL COMN BY SATL
While optical satcom, is
particularly appropriate for in-tern satl
links (where performance would seem to
be comparable to EHF sys), there is also
scope for the space to grnd comn
subject to obvious problems of cloud
and rain. Such a sys might operate
around 1.3 micron wavelength most
likely sources and use pulse position
modulation. Current tech is largely
based on direct detection methods.
Coherent detection sys, where optical
sig is heterodyned down RF, offer
considerable potential.
74. Use of the blue-green lasers may
permit comn with submarines below the
sea surface. This might involve one-way
broadcast from low orbiting satl
modulated scanning spot beam,
seawater, and very narrow rxr optical
filter to reject background noise.
PHYSICAL SURVIVABILITY
AGAINST THREATS
75. SATL NETWORKS. The mil
satl comn networks of future will be
more flexible, more cost-effective and
most importantly capable of functioning
under any scenario from peace through
protracted nuclear war. This goal will be
achieved by ensuring interoperability of
links handling comn, msn data, or satl
tracking, telemetry and comd for a
different types of future defence satl
comn sys. The design of interoperable
and survivable Network for different
kinds of defence satl comn sys is highly
complex tasks. Satl data link standards
will have to be evolved and common txn
formats, protocols and compatible
software/ hardware and will be used for
different classes of users to have
survivable data links. Future network
architectures will have to take into
consideration not only the satl links but
terrestrial nodes as well and sufficient
redundancy in space and grnd links will
have to be built to ensure to ensure
alternate links for improved
connectivity.
76. SPACE SEGMENT. Emerging satl
comn beyond timeframe of the present
sys will need physical survivability
against anti-satl threat two basic
concepts for achieving some
survivability of the space segment have
been considered. First one is to put the
number of satl in Geosynchronous and
higher altitude. Second approach is to
arrg large number of satl in lower or
medium orbits so that substantial
number of them has to be eliminated to
the cause a maj reduction in comn
capability.
77. In the Milstar pgm, the first
approach has been adopted. Four
 27

Geosynchronous satl and three inclined

orbits are interconnected by cross-links.
Depending on the scenario, one user
may be interconnected to another by
different methods. Required connectivity
takes place in stressed jamming or
nuclear environment very quickly by the
network mgt including the intra-satl and
inter-satl links.

78. NUCLEAR THREAT AND

RADIATION HARDENING Radiation,
EMP and atmospheric ionisation/
scintillation are the other nuclear threats
apart from the threat by direct blast.
Appropriate shielding and choice of
components are the key factors for
nuclear hardening while the primary
EMP may be insignificant at a great
distance, significant secondary EMP can
be introduced by initial incident pulse.
Nuclear detonation can ionise the upper
atmosphere, seriously affecting the
space to earth propagation. Initial
period is followed by nuclear scintillation
so that sig fades rapidly. This affects the
UHF comn for many hrs, SHF for a few
hrs, but EHF momentarily. This reqmt is
also a driving force towards the use of
EHF in Milstar pgmme of USA.
 28

CONCLUSION
With the vastness of space blurring all
svlcapabilities will form the bedrock of
national boundaries on the globe,
future war making effort. Due to the
strategic military placements of every
proliferation of high tech weapon
country will become exposed to the
systems in the battlefield scenario of
orbiting satl unless, of course,
2015 AD, the war fighting edge of
governments resort to moving them
modern Army will require enhancement.
underground at astronomical costs.
The armed forces will be forced to
While such exposure robs them of the
modernize to keep pace with changes in
secrecy, which the defence units could
tech and there will be a qualitative
depend upon until they become
increase in the satl comn and their
vulnerable to the gaze from space, it
exploitation for collecting vital info so as
has made it possible for satl launching
to ward off any future misadventures by
nations like India to know precisely how
our adversaries as we had in recent
its neighbours have deployed their
times.
armoury. It also would presumably
have a deterrent value in the mutual
arms race. This should not make
military use of satl wasteful.

10. Future wars would be space age

wars and the battlefield would be
increasingly transparent by day as well
as night and in most weather conditions.
The thrust will be to carry out highly
intense air attacks designed to
overwhelm the en, using the Stealth
technology, PGMs and EW by
destruction of the en’s Centre of Gravity
for maximum effect. Real time
 29

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I am extremely grateful to Col. Vijay Bhaskar Reddy and Mr. G. Abhiram for their constant guidance,
encouragement and moral support throughout the project.

I will be failing in duty if I do not acknowledge with grateful thanks to the authors of the references and
other literatures referred in this Project.

I express my thanks to all staff members and friends for all the help and co-ordination extended in bringing
out this Project successfully in time.

Finally, I am very much thankful to my parents who guided me for every step.

Date: (G. BHARATH REDDY)

Place:
 30

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Advanced Elec Comn Sys by Wayne Tomasi.

2. Low Earth Orbit Satl Sys by G Maral Et Al.
(International Journal of Satl comn)
3. Tac Mil Comn Networks of the Future by Mr M S Viswanathan. (Defence Science
Journal, vol 43,Jan 93.)

4. Present and Future Trends in Mil Satl Comn sys.

(Defence Science Journal, vol 43,Jan 93.)

5. Asian Defence Journal -Jul 93.

6. International Defence Technical- Sep 94.

7. Journal of Elec Defence- Aug 94.

8. Asia Week & space Tech – Mar 95.

9. Sources: Lockheed Martin Corp., Central Intelligence Agency

10. Site www.jedonline.indiatimes.com

11. site www.google.com