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EEE 443: Radar and Satellite

Communication

Course Teacher: Dr. Md. Saifur Rahman

Professor
Department of EEE, BUET

Satellite Link Design

Fig. x: Illustration of video distribution system supplying cable TV signals via a GEO satellite.
Satellite distribution of TV programs to cable TV systems is widely employed because a single
uplink earth station and a GEO satellite can send hundreds of TV channels to every cable
TV system in an entire continent. 2

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Satellite Link Design

However, before we proceed to design a satellite link for the

above system, we need to review some of the important
topics relevant to the design. 3

Satellite Frequency Bands

Banghabandhu-1:
40 Transponders
(14 in C Band,
26 in Ku Band)

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Uplink and Downlink Frequency

14/12 GHz band :

6/4 GHz band :
Uplink : 12.75 - 14.8 GHz
Uplink : 5.725 - 7.075 GHz
Downlink : 10.7 - 12.3 GHz
Downlink : 3.4 - 4.8 GHz
12.5 - 12.7 GHz
Bandwidth : 500 MHz
Bandwidth : 500 MHz

C-Band Uplink and Downlink

Nearly all C-band communication satellites use the band of
frequencies from 3.7 to 4.2 GHz for their downlinks, and the
band of frequencies from 5.925 to 6.425 GHz for their uplinks.
However, we should note that there are variations of the C-
Band around the world, which is shown in the following table.

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C-Band Channels
The C-band is the most frequently used.
 Typical commercial bandwidth: 500 MHz
Nearly all C-band communication satellites use the following band of
frequencies
(Uplink: 5,925 – 6,425 MHz
Downlink: 3,700 – 4,200 MHz)

Note that by using the band from 3.7 to 4.0 GHz, this C-band
overlaps somewhat into the IEEE S band for radars.
A typical transponder bandwidth is 36 MHz excluding the 4 MHz guard
band
 IF frequency = 70 MHz
 Number of transponders can be accommodated in 500 MHz = 12
 Using polarization, number of transponders can be doubled.
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Transponder Bandwidth
Banghabandhu-1:
40 Transponders
(14 in C Band,
26 in Ku Band)
Banghabandhu-1:
Total bandwidth = 1600 MHz,
Per Transponder = 36 MHz

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Ku-Band Uplink and Downlink

The Ku-band is also used extensively, but it suffers from Rain
Attenuation.
 Typical commercial bandwidth: 500 MHz

Europe and Africa: Segments in those regions are represented by

ITU Region 1, and they are the 11.45 to 11.7 and 12.5 to 12.75 GHz
bands, which are allocated to the FSS (fixed satellite service, uplink:
14.0 to 14.5 GHz). In Europe Ku band is used from 10.7 to 12.75
GHz for DBSS (direct broadcast satellite services) such as those
carried by the Astra satellites. The 11.7 to 12.5 GHz segment is
allocated to the BSS (broadcasting satellite service).
The Americas: Segments in most of North and South America are
represented by ITU Region 2 downlink: from 11.7 to 12.2 GHz, and
uplink: from 14.0 to 14.5 GHz is allocated to the FSS.
The 12.2 to 12.7 GHz segment is allocated to the BSS as downlink.
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Satellite Link Design

Before going to design a satellite link, we must know what
the following relevant terms are:

• What is a Communication Link?

• What is a Link Equation?
• What are the Design Specifications/ the Design
Parameters of a Satellite Link?
• What is a Link Budget?
• What is Link Margin?

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Communication Link

Fig. x: Communication Links. 11

Satellite Link Equation

What is a Link Equation?
where
La = attenuation in the atmosphere
Lta = losses associated with the transmitting antenna
Lra = losses associated with the receiving antenna

EIRP = Pt Gt

Fig.x: Calculation of received power from a satellite with EIRP = Pt Gt watts including losses.
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Satellite Link Equation

What is a Link Equation?

where
La = attenuation in the atmosphere
Lta = losses associated with the transmitting antenna
Lra = losses associated with the receiving antenna

EIRP = Pt Gt

Fig.x: Calculation of received power from an uplink earth station with EIRP=Pt Gt watts
including losses. 13

Satellite Link Equation

What is a Link Equation?

The expression dBW means decibels greater or less

than 1W (0 dBW). The units dBW and dBm (dB
greater or less than 1W and 1mW) are widely used in
communications engineering. EIRP, being the product
of transmitter power and antenna gain is normally
quoted in dBW.

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Satellite Link Equation

What is a Link Equation?

η A = Ae / Ar

ηA = The aperture efficiency of the antenna

Ar m2 = Physical aperture area of the antenna
Ae m2 = Effective aperture area of the antenna

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System and Satellite Specification

What are the Design Specifications/ the Design
Parameters of a Satellite Link?
Table 4.6 System and Satellite Specification
Ku-Band Satellite Parameters
Geostationary at 73⁰ W longitude, 28 Ku-band transponders
Total RF output power 2.24kW
Antenna gain, on axis, (transmit and receive) Gt, Gr 31 dB
Receive/Transponder system noise temperature Ts sat 500K
Transponder saturated output power: Ku band Pt sat 80W
Transponder bandwidth: Ku band Btransp 54MHz

Signal
Compressed digital video signals: symbol rate Rs 43.2Msps
Minimum permitted overall (C/N)O in receiver (C/N)O 9.5 dB
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Uplink Earth Station Specification

What are the Design Specifications/ the Design
Parameters of a Satellite Link?

Table 4.6 System and Satellite Specification

Transmitting/Uplink Ku-Band Earth Station
Antenna diameter D 5.0m
Aperture efficiency of Transmitting antenna ηA 68%
Uplink frequency f up 14.15 GHz
Required C/N in Ku-band transponder (C/N)up 30 dB
Transponder HPA output backoff Bo xp 1.0 dB
Miscellaneous uplink losses Lmisc up 0.3dB
Location: −2 dB contour of satellite uplink antenna.

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Downlink Earth Station Specification

What are the Design Specifications/ the Design
Parameters of a Satellite Link?
Table 4.6 System and Satellite Specification
Receiving/Downlink Ku-Band Earth Station
Aperture efficiency of Receiving antenna ηA 65%
Downlink frequency fdown 11.45GHz
Receiver IF noise bandwidth Bn 43.2MHz
Antenna noise temperature Ta 30K
LNA noise temperature TLNA 110K
Required overall (C/N)O in clear air (C/N)O 17 dB
Miscellaneous downlink losses Lmisc dn 0.2 dB
Location: −3 dB contour of satellite transmitting antenna

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Rain Attenuation Specification

What are the Design Specifications/ the Design
Parameters of a Satellite Link?
Table 4.6 System and Satellite Specification
Rain attenuation and propagation factors
Ku-band clear air attenuation (worst case)
Uplink 14.15GHz 0.7 dB
Downlink 11.45GHz 0.5 dB
Rain attenuation (worst case)
Uplink 0.01% of year 6.0 dB
Downlink 0.01% of year 5.0 dB

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Link Budget
What is a Link Budget?
A link budget is a tabular method for evaluating the
received power (Pr) and noise power (N) in a radio link.
It is similar to a monetary budget, where received power is
regarded as equivalent to income and losses are equivalent
to expenditure.
C/N ratio calculation is simplified by the use of link budgets.

Link budgets invariably use decibel units for all quantities

so that signal and noise powers can be calculated by simple
addition and subtraction.
Link budgets are usually calculated for a worst case, the
one in which the link will have the lowest C/N ratio.
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Link Budget
Advantages of Link Budget
Since it is usually impossible to design a satellite link
accurately at the first attempt, link budgets make the task
much easier because, once a link budget has been
established, it is easy to change any of the parameters and
recalculate the result.
The link budget must be calculated for an individual
transponder, and must be repeated for each of the individual
links.
In a two-way satellite communication link there will be four
separate links, each requiring a calculation of CNR.

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Link Margin
What is Link Margin?
Communications system design requires the development
of a link budget between the transmitter and the
receiver that provides an adequate signal level at the
receiver’s demodulator input to achieve the required
level of performance and availability. Just being able to
detect the signal is not sufficient.

Link Margin: The difference in power level between clear

sky conditions (the performance level) and that which
exists at the threshold of the demodulator when the link is
under impaired conditions (the availability level) may be
defined as the link margin.

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Link Margin
What is Link Margin?

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Link Margin
What is Link Margin?
We must make an allowance in the link budget for some
losses that will inevitably occur on the link. At C-band,
propagation losses are small, but the slant path through
the atmosphere will suffer a typical attenuation of 0.2
dB in clear air. We will allow an additional 0.5 dB margin
in the link design to account for miscellaneous losses,
such as antenna mispointing, polarization mismatch,
and antenna degradation, to ensure that the link budget
is realistic.
The earth station receiver C/N ratio (CNR) is first
calculated for clear sky conditions, with no rain in the
slant path. The CNR is then recalculated taking account of
the effects of rain.
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Link Margin
What is “the slant path”?

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Link Margin
What is Link Margin?
Suppose that the minimum permitted overall CNR for a
downlink is 9.5 dB, corresponding to the FM threshold of an
analog satellite TV receiver. Also assume that we have a
downlink C/N of 16.0 dB in clear air. What is the link
margin? The answer is: A link margin of 6.5 dB. This link
margin is available in clear air condition, but will be reduced
when there is rain in the slant path.
However, propagation in rain becomes a major factor at
frequencies above 10 GHz. Attenuation (in dB) in rain
increases as roughly the square of the frequency, so at 20
GHz rain attenuation is four times larger, in dB, than at 10
GHz.

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Link Margin
What is Link Margin?
Heavy rain in the slant path can cause up to 1 dB of
attenuation at 4GHz when the satellite has a low
elevation angle and the slant path through the rain is
long, which reduces the received power by 1 dB and
increases the noise temperature of the receiving
system.

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Satellite Link Design

System Design for Specific Performance
We mentioned earlier that a typical two-way satellite
communication link consists of four separate paths:
an outbound uplink path from one terminal to the
satellite and an outbound downlink to the second
terminal,
and an inbound uplink from the second terminal to
the satellite
and an inbound downlink to the first terminal.
The links in the two directions are independent and
can be designed separately, unless they share the
same transponder using FDMA.
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Two-Way Satellite Communication Links

Satellite

outbound outbound
uplink path downlink path

Earth inbound inbound Earth

Station downlink path uplink path Station

A Two-Way Satellite Communication Link

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One-Way Satellite Communication Links

A broadcast link, like the DBS-TV system (Ku-/Ka-band) is a
one-way system: has one uplink and one downlink, as shown.

outbound
uplink path

outbound
downlink path

Fig. x: Illustration of a Direct Broadcast Satellite TeleVision system (DBS-TV). The uplink
earth station transmits multiple digital TV signals in compressed form to a number of
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transponders on the satellite.

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One-Way Satellite Communication Links

A broadcast link, like the DBS-TV system as shown earlier,
is a one-way system, with just one uplink and one downlink.

Satellite

outbound outbound
uplink path downlink path

Earth Earth
Station Station

One-Way Satellite Communication Link

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Satellite Transmission Delay

Satellite

135 ms 135 ms

Earth 135 ms 135 ms Earth

Station Station
25 ms

25 ms

Terrestrial Transmission System

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Various Decibel Unit Calculations

Decibels in Communications Engineering
We are familiar with the practice of expressing power
ratios in decibels, abbreviated dB. The dB ratio A of two
power levels P1 and P2 is given by

provided that P1 and P2 are expressed in the same units.

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Various Decibel Unit Calculations

Besides the dBW and the dBm, a common power unit is the
dBp, which is power expressed in dB above 1 picowatt.

Other dB units used frequently in this text are dBK, for

decibels greater than 1K, for noise temperature, and
dBHz, for decibels greater than 1 Hz for bandwidth.

Combined with Boltzmann’s constant, k, the expression k T B

is noise power (N), usually calculated as

where k has a value −228.6 dBW/K/Hz.

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Various Decibel Unit Calculations

Home Work: Show that where Boltzmann’s constant k has
a value of −228.6 dBW/K/Hz.

Hint:
Boltzmann’s constant is given by, k= 1.38 x 10 –23 J/ K
Boltzmann’s constant is given by, k= 1.38 x 10 –23 (W-S)/ K
Boltzmann’s constant is given by, k= 1.38 x 10 –23 W/ (Hz K)

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Various Decibel Unit Calculations

Home Work: What is the maximum available thermal noise
from a resistive termination at an ambient temperature of 27⁰
C in a standard band-limited telephone channel of (300Hz –
3400Hz)? Calculate it in watts and also in dBm.
Hint: Noise power is given by, N = Pn = kTB watts.

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