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)

Solution

a) To provide coverage to a circular area of radius 200 km from a height of 1000 km, the
beamwidth must be

 200 
3dB  2 tan 1    22.62
 1000 

a) The satellite provides service to a wide range of frequencies (18 GHz – 23 GHz), so we
have to make sure that its antenna meets specifications for the whole range of
frequencies.

     c 
3dB  75    D  75    75  
D   3dB   3dB  f 

So, clearly, to provide the needed coverage, we have to consider the worst case (or
smaller radius (since a larger radius will result in a smaller coverage area. The worst case
(or smallest radius) results when we consider the smallest wavelength or largest
frequency in the band that the satellite operates at.
    c 
D  75  min   75  
  3dB   3dB  f max 
 2.998*108 
 75  
  22.62    23*109  
 
 0.04321 m

D 0.04321
Radius of satellite =   0.0216 m
2 2

c) Once the Diameter of the antenna is known, the gain becomes a function of the
frequency (or wavelength), so we will have a range of gains between the following
values:

2
 D 
G min  A   
 max 
2
 D  f min 
 A   
 c 
  0.04321   18*109 
2

  0.75      49.82  16.97 dB

  2.998*108  


2
 D 
G max  A   
 min 
2
 D  f max 
 A   
 c 
  0.04321   23*109 
2

  0.75      81.34  19.10 dB

  2.998*108  


c) Assuming the existence of path loss only, the received power will also be a function
of frequency and in the following range:

PT GT .G R PT G 12
PR 1  2
 2
 4 R   4 R  f 1 
   
 1   c 
 1  49.82 
2


 4  10, 000   18*109  
2

 

  2.998*108  

 4.3602*1011 W
 PT GT .G R PT G 2 2
PR 2  2
 2
 4 R   4 R  f 2 
   
 2   c 
 1  81.34 
2


 4  10, 000   23*109  
2

 

  2.998*108  

 7.1186*1011 W
 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)

Solution
 C 
a) The carrier to noise ratio of the downlink   can be obtained by computing the
 N Downlink
received carrier power and dividing it by the noise power in the signal at the output of the
downlink receiver as follows:

Effective transmitted power

PT  10  log10  5  3.5  3.49 dBW

The wavelength of operation is

c 2.998*108
   0.0857 m
f 3.5*109

Diameter and Gain of transmitting antenna

    0.0857 
DT  75    75    0.3781 m
 3dB   17 

2 2
 D  0.3781 
GT   A      0.6      115.3  20.62 dB
   0.0857 

Gain of receiving antenna

2 2
 D  1.2 
G R  A      0.5     967.54  29.86 dB
   0.0857 

Path loss is equal to

2 2
 R   40,000, 000 
L P   4    4 19
  3.440*10  195.36 dB
    0.0857 

Clear-air atmospheric loss, Rain loss and other losses are equal to

L Edge of Beam  3.0 dB

L A  3.0 dB
L R  18.0 dB
LO  2.0 dB

Now, we are ready to compute the carrier power using the formula:

PR  PT (dB)  G S (dB)  G ES (dB)  L Edge of Beam  L P (dB)  L A (dB)  L R (dB)  LO (dB)

 3.49  20.62  29.86  3.0  195.36  3.0  18.0  2.0
 167.39 dB
 The system noise temperature is given by

TM T IF
T S  T In  T RF  
G RF G RF G M
100 400
 35  45  
100  100    0.25 
 97 K

So, the noise power is

PN  k T S  BW
  1.38*1023   97   38*106 
 5.087 *1014 W
 132.94 dBW

So, the downlink carrier to noise ratio

C 
   PR (dB)  PN (dB)
 N  Downlink
 167.39  132.94
 34.45 dB
 3.5892*104

C 
b) The overall carrier to noise ratio   is given by (all C/N and C/I must be in linear
 N Overall
form)

C  1
  
 N Overall 1 1 1 1
  
C  C  C  C 
       
 N Uplink  I Uplink  N  Downlink  I Downlink
1

1 1 1 1
  4

141.254 100 3.589*10 177.83
4
 3.589*10
 34.45 dB
 C 
c) Given the above overall carrier to noise ratio   , the signal to noise ratio of the
 N Overall
demodulated signal is given by

S  C  BW FM f
     10  log10  20  log10 Peak  1.8  P (dB)
 N Out  N Overall f max f max

where

C 
   34.45 dB
 N Overall
BW FM  38.0 MHz
f max  BW of Message Signal  5.0 MHz
P  8.0 dB

So, the only remaining quantity is f Peak which is obtained using the Carson’s rule defining
the bandwidth of an FM signal as

BW FM  2  f Peak  f max 

So,

BW FM
f Peak   f max
2
38.0
 5
2
 14.0 MHz

Therefore,

S  38.0 14.0
   34.45  10  log10  20  log10  1.8  8.0
 N Out 5.0 5.0
 6.8987 dB
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 are 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)

Solution

a) Relationship between noise temperature and noise figure of any device is

T S  TO  NF (Linear)  1

The noise figure of the system is

NF  2.3 dB
 1.6982 (Linear)

So,

T S  290  1.6982  1
 202.48 K

b) The circumference of the satellite can be obtained as

 35 m 2 
Circum     8.75 m
2

 4m 

So, radius of the spinner satellite is

 Circum 
Sat . Radius     1.393 m
 2 

Therefore, the effective area of a spinner satellite illuminated by sun is

Effective Area  2(Radius )(Height )  2(1.393)(4)  11.14 m 2

So, maximum power is obtained when sun beams are perpendicular to spinner satellite
rotation axis. This maximum power will be:
 Pmax  (Solar Cell Efficiency )(Effective Area )(Sun Power per Unit Area )
  0.2   11.14 m 2   1.39*103 W/m 2 
 3096.9 W

c) Some of the quantities that are measured by sensors on a satellite and reported back to the
base station monitoring the satellite are:
i. Pressure of rocket fuel in fuel tanks
ii. Temperature of different parts of the satellite (including communication
components)
iii. Power generated by solar cells and consumed by different components of the
satellite
iv. Position of different switches turning on/off different components of the
satellite
v. Satellite Attitude information
vi. Amount of battery charge

d) The satellite subsystems that we have studies are

i. Power subsystem
ii. Communication subsystem
iii. Attitude and Orbit Control System
iv. Telemetry, Tracking, Command, and Monitoring (TTC&M)
v. Satellite Antennas