ECE4010 M3 Subsysems

24-10-2021
ECE4010 Satellite Communication
Elements of Communication
Satellite Design
Dr. S. Hariharan
Associate Professor
School of Electronics Engineering
TT-Anx.-103A / TT134
shariharan@vit.ac.in
Module Outline
 Satellite Subsystems:
 Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS)
 Telemetry ,Tracking and Telecommand (TTC)
 Power subsystems
 Communication Subsystems
 Satellite Antennas
 Reliability and Redundancy
2 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE
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Introduction
 In satellite communication system, various operations
take place.
 Among which, the main operations are
 orbit controlling,
 altitude of satellite,
 monitoring and controlling of other subsystems.
Satellite Subsystem or Satellite Bus

 Satellite Subsystem or Satellite Bus is the platform that
supports payload operation reliably throughout mission life.
Satellite Payload
Satellite Bus
 A communications satellite may be regarded as comprising

two main modules:
 The communications module (the 'payload')
 The service module (the 'bus' or ‘subsystem')
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Functions of Satellite Bus

 Altitude and Orbit Control (AOC) system
 To maintain position and orientation of satellite towards service
area
 Propulsion system
 To provide proper thrust to satellite to maintain its attitude and
orbit
 Telemetry,Tracking and Command (TTC) system
 To provide status and health of subsystems to ground monitoring
station,
 To accept command from ground control and to execute them in
order to meet the performance requirement of the subsystems.
 To support ground stations to track the satellite.

 Power system
 To Provide primary and secondary DC power to subsystem
electronics
 Thermal system
 To maintain temperature of different systems in Bus and
Payload within their operating range
 Structure system
 To provide mechanical and structural support to the satellite
during orbit raising and normal operational period
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Satellite Payload
Microwave Repeater,
Antenna
Satellite Bus
AOCS, Propulsion, TTCS, Power, Thermal, Structure
Satellite - Payloads
 Satellites have life
expectancy 10-15 years.
 Many components are
deployed in redundant
configurations to
minimize probability of
satellite failure
Major components of a Lockheed Martin remote sensing satellite

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Satellite
 Satellites have life
expectancy 10-15
years.
 Many components are
deployed in redundant
configurations to
minimize probability of
satellite failure
Major components of a Lockheed Martin remote sensing satellite
BBC Documentary 2013 - How to build a satellite https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fGpCRHV7Tg

Altitude and Orbit Control (AOC) system

 Two principle tasks
 Stabilize the orientation of the satellite
 Maintain the position of the satellite in orbit
 We can make this AOC subsystem into the following two
parts.
 Altitude Control Subsystem
 Orbit Control Subsystem
 Orbit is maintained using control thrusters
 The amount of fuel available for thruster operation is a
fundamental limit on the satellite life span
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Altitude and Orbit Control (AOC) system

 Boeing 376 – one of the most
popular GEO Comm. Satellites
 Operates in C, Ku bands
 Usually have 24 transponders
 50 satellites over five
continents, used by more than
20 companies
AOCS: Altitude Control Subsystem

 Altitude control subsystem takes care of the orientation of
satellite in its respective orbit.
 Following are the two methods to make the satellite that is

present in an orbit as stable.
 Spinning the satellite
 Three axes method
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Spinning the satellite

 In this method, the body of the satellite rotates around its
spin axis.
 In general, it can be rotated at 30 to 100 rpm in order to

produce a force, which is of gyroscopic type.
 Due to this, the spin axis gets stabilized and the satellite will
point in the same direction.
 Satellites are of this type are called as spinners.

 Spinner contains a drum, which is of cylindrical shape. This
drum is covered with solar cells.
 Power systems and rockets are present in this drum.
Intelsat-1 to Intelsat-4, Intelsat-6
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 Communication subsystem is placed on top of the drum. An
electric motor drives this communication system.
 The direction of this motor will be opposite to the rotation of

satellite body, so that the antennas point towards earth.
 The satellites, which perform this kind of operation are called

as de-spin.
3 axis of satellite
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3 axis of satellite
Satellite stabilization
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Three axes method

 Altitude control needs to sense the sense the satellite
orientation towards earth and control the orientation in case
of error.
Sensing Orientation
 Orientation of satellite changes with time
 It needs to be monitored and corrected
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Earth Sensor
 On the background of dark sky Earth is a bright object seen
from satellite.
 Earth edge is sensed using IR through symmetrical slits, so that
only a portion of earth disc across its centre is traced
Earth Sensor
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Earth Sensor
 Using curved scanning, instead of straight scanning, both
roll and pitch axis can be sensed.
Accuracy of these IR sensors are 0.05 deg
RF sensors
 RF transmitters from earth can be tracked using on board
antenna tracking.
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Sun Sensors
 Yaw axis is towards the center of the earth.
 Yaw axis cannot be monitored with good resolution with
earth sensor.
 Photo voltaic cells are used to measure the sun direction.
 Due to high solar flux, PV sensor sensitivity is not critical
 It has accuracy of 0.01 deg
Star Sensors
 A portion of sky map is stored and compared with the
measured image
 It gives accuracy of 0.001 deg
 Sensors have to be highly sensitive as the signal strength from
stars is very low
 It is a complex process and needs more electronics.
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Orbit Control Subsystem

 Required torques are generated by two separate units
 Reaction Wheel
 Thrusters
Reaction Wheel
 Reaction wheel give angular momentum which gives a
gyroscopic stiffness in the axis of spin.
𝑑𝐻
 Torque, 𝑇 = 𝑑𝑡
 Where H- Angular Momentum = 𝐼 ∗ 𝑤
 I is the moment of inertia and w is angular velocity
𝑑𝑤
 𝑇=𝐼∗ 𝑑𝑡
 The disturbing Torque is estimated from sensor output and by

changing the wheel speed the axis is made stable.
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Thrusters
Firing thrusters on one face of the spacecraft Firing thrusters on opposite sides rotates
moves it in the opposing direction
Thrusters work on the same principle as launchers, i.e. force is exerted on the satellite by the
reaction to gas expelled through a jet.
Thrusters
Fuel is Hydrazine N2H4

Catalyst is Iridium
Oxidizer is Nitrogen Tetroxide N2O4
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Thrusters
 It produces force by expelling gas through nozzle.
𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆 , 𝑭 = 𝒈 ∗ 𝑰𝒔𝒑 ∗ 𝒎/𝒕
 Where, g = 9.8ms2
 Isp = specific impulse based on fuel type
 m = mass of the fuel expelled
𝒎 = 𝑭 ∗ 𝒕 ∗ (𝒈 ∗ 𝑰𝒔𝒑) 𝑲𝒈
 Torque, 𝑇 = 𝐹 ∗ 𝐿
 L – is the length from centre of the satellite to Nozzle
Tracking, Telemetry and Command : TTC
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 Established and integrated TTC networks
 ESTRACK (European space tracking) network of the ESA (European Space Agency)
 ISTRAC (ISRO telemetry, tracking and command)
 ISTRAC network major functions:

 TTC support to satellites launched from Sriharikota right from the lift-off stage
till the satellite injection stage.
 TTC support including housekeeping data acquisition throughout the mission
lifetime for LEO Satellites, their health monitoring operations and control
operations.
 Data reception and processing from scientific payloads for payload analysts.
 TTC support to international space agencies under commercial arrangements
through the Antrix Corporation.

 Functions of TTC
 To monitor subsystem health and status parameters
 To support detecting orbital parameters
 To provide a source for earth station to track the
satellite
 To receive and execute the commands to perform
the required functions.
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 TTC – distributed between satellite and Earth station
 Satellite provides measurements
 Position sensors
 Environmental sensors
 Alarms
 Satellite may have few hundred of different sensors
 Measured data sent over TTC&M link to Earth station
 The TTC link is a narrowband link - allows for high sensitivity reception
 At the Earth station measured data processed and commands are issued to the
satellite
 TTC may be operated by satellite owner or it may be outsourced
 TTC systems are build with redundancy
Telemetry
 Primarily telemetry subsystem monitors health and status
parameters of satellite bus and payload.
 In case of Remote Sensing satellite,
 Telemetry also used for transmitting observed data collected by
sensors from Earth/Planet/Star to the Earth Station.
 The monitoring parameters could be any of the following:
 Voltage, current , temperature, pressure, switch status, wheel speed,
etc.,
 Analogue parameters are transmitted directly by sub-carrier
modulation or digitized, encoded, formatted, modulated and
transmitted to ground station.
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Telemetry
Bit rates are low, of the order of less than 10 Kbps
Telecommand
 It should be robust to avoid wrong or missed command
 For different type of command, standards body proposed
certain performance criteria.
 For Mode C & D higher layer protocols improves undetected

errors at link layer
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Telecommand
 In addition to improved error control by FEC, two
techniques used
 Repeat transmission of command words
 Confirmation of command reception through echoing
Format
Add & Word-1 Word-2 Error

Sync Word-1 Word-2 ….. . . .
Control repeat repeat check
Telecommand
 Execute command transmitted separately after making
sure that command is received correctly
 Command execution
 Direct execution, execute as soon as command is received
 Validate command and execute
 Time/event based command execute
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Sync word selection and Detection

 Two properties characterize code word length for
channels with high error.
 Missed detection, ( 𝑷𝒎 )
 when error occurs in the code word itself.
 False Alarm, ( 𝑷𝒇𝒂 )
 When error in data bits make a word look like Sync.Word
 Receiver correlates the received word with locally
generated word
 It should have good autocorrelation.
Detection
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Telemetry and Command

 Allotted uplink frequency 2025 – 2120 MHz
 Allotted downlink frequency 2200 – 2300 MHz
 As available bandwidth of 100 MHz is small for all operating

satellites, these frequencies are used only during orbit
placement and in emergency.
 Normal operation of TC is done through communication

payload band, that is C or Ku band
 Power level of TC carrier level is monitored on-board and a

high priority relay changes over RF to S band if level goes
below threshold
Tracking
 To track the satellite from ground, Look Angle and Range need
to be found.
 Look angle for tracking is found with the help of separate

beacon signals transmitted by satellite system or from the
telemetry carrier.
 The signal in beacon primarily has the call sign of the satellite.
 Beacon - transmitted in Morse code, which is achieved by OOK
(On-Off keying) technique.
 Ground station uses tracking to determine look angle

precisely and thus to find the angular position of satellite.
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Tracking
 Range or distance to satellite from earth station is found by
measuring round trip delay of a signal (tone or code)
 Tone sent from ground station is received by satellite TTC

subsystem and retransmitted back to ground station
 On ground, Phase delay difference of transmit and receive

signal is two times the range, as the signal travels the path two
times.
Tracking
𝜙
2𝑅 = 𝜆𝑛 + 𝜆
360
𝜆 − 𝑊𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ
𝑛 – 𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙 𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑠
𝜙 − 𝑃ℎ𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑦 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒
 To remove ambiguity of number of full cycles, very low

frequency (less than 10 Hz) tones to be used
 2 times GEO range could be more than 2 × 36786 k𝑚, What

could be the tone frequency ?
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Range Accuracy
 Range accuracy
1 Δ𝜙 × 𝑐
Δ𝑅 = ×
2 360 × 𝑓
 Δ𝑅 - accuracy in range measurement
 Δ𝜙 - accuracy of phase measurement
 To make Δ𝑅 small, 𝑓 should be high
 Two contradicting requirements,

 Low frequency tone to remove number full cycle ambiguity
 High frequency tone to improve range accuracy
Tracking
 To remove ambiguity of number of full cycles passed as well as
to achieve better range accuracy, two tones,
 one higher and one lower frequency are sent
 Lower frequency tone recovers ambiguity

 Higher frequency tone gives accuracy
 Distance ambiguity will be half of wavelength as the signal

travels the distance two times, upward and downwards.
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Tracking
 Precise ranging is done through spread spectrum
technique.
 It is based on correlation of transmitted code with
received one.
 Auto correlation of a signal 𝑥(𝑡),

Rx ( )   x(t ) x(t   )d

Tracking
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Tracking
Next value of register a3 is modulo addition of a1 and a0 Pattern will be repeated after
𝟐𝟒 – 𝟏 = 𝟏𝟓 bit shifts
Pattern repeats slowly : low frequency for ambiguity removal

Each bit in the pattern is at higher rate : can be used for range accuracy
Power Subsystem
 Power system is a vital subsystem, which provides the power
required for working of a satellite.
 Mainly, the solar cells (Primary Source) and rechargeable
batteries (Secondary Source) are used in these systems.
Solar Cells
 Basically, the solar cells produce electrical power (current)
from incident sunlight.
 Therefore, solar cells are used primarily in order to provide
power to other subsystems of satellite.
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Primary - Solar Cells

 There are two types of solar arrays that are used in satellites.
 Cylindrical solar arrays are used in spinning satellites. Only
part of the cylindrical array will be covered under sunshine at
any given time.
 The drawback of cylindrical solar arrays is overcome with
Solar sail. This one produce more power because all solar cells
of solar sail are exposed to sun light.
 Average Solar Radiation = 1370 W/m2 near earth

 Earth orbital eccentricity varies the above value by 89%
 Solar cells are made of either Si or GaAs
Solar Cells
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Solar cells
 With rise in temperature from 10˚ to 70˚C power output
from the solar cell drops by 25%.
 Conversion efficiency of Si is 15% and GaAs is 20% at 27˚C
 The efficiency of solar cells also degrades due to cosmic
particle bombardment on its surface.
 So it is protected by transparent shield of Quartz.
 Power generation varies with respect to the distance of the
satellite from Sun.
Solar cells
 Solar flux density (𝜑) depends on
 Nominal solar flux at earth (W)
 Distance factor, depends on actual and mean solar distance (d)
 Sun inclination angle to solar cell (𝜃)
𝜑=𝑊×𝑑×𝜃
 Solar cell efficiency degrades from efficiency at beginning of life
and time spent in orbit.
𝑒𝐸𝑂𝐿 = 𝑒𝐵𝑂𝐿 𝑒 −0.43𝑇
 Where, T is number of years in orbit
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Solar Cell
 Total Primary Power Capacity
𝑃 = 𝜑𝑒 1 − 𝑙 𝑠𝑛
Solar Cells
 Solar panels are made with serial and parallel connection of
multiple cells to get required voltage and current.
 The range of primary voltage would be 10V to 100V and
primary current would be 10 Amp.
 Number of series connections will be V/Vc
 Number of Parallel connections will be I/Ic
 Short circuit and open circuit protections are required for
proper function of the power system
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Secondary: Battery Capacity
Thermal Subsystem
 Temperature variations are large in satellite. Following are some
temperature range specifications for different sub systems in ° C.
Antenna -150 to +80
Electronics on standby -30 to +55
Electronics in operation -10 to +45
Solar power generators -160 to +55
Battery standby -10 to +25
Battery operational 0 to +10
Sun sensors -30 to +55
Pro pellant +10 to +55
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Thermal Subsystem
 In vacuum there is no convection, only conduction and radiation are
possible to transfer heat from one place to another.
 Following remedial measures are taken to meet the required
thermal balance.
 Adjust thermal conductivities between parts of satellite for heat
exchange
 Use thermo-optical behaviour of the surface
 The change in refractive index with the response to temperature.
 Local source of heat can be generated by electric heaters
 Cooling can be done by exposing surface to cold space
Structural Subsystem
 Supports on board equipment from shock
and vibration during launch
 Permits separation and deployment of

appendages
Al and Fibre honeycomb  Structure mass should be 5% or less than

total mass
Al and Mg alloys with honeycomb panels are used for

body and Carbon fibre for antenna
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Communication Payload
 Communication payload is a microwave repeater.
 Its main function is to receive, amplify and retransmit the
signal to earth station
 Signal at the input of satellite is extremely weak due to

free space loss over large distance
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 What is the typical signal level received at satellite from earth
station?
 Assume, Tx power = 43 dBw, Range = 40,000 Km, Satellite receive
antenna effective aperture = 0.098 m2
Power received = Power Flux density × receive antenna effective aperture
𝑇𝑋. 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 × 𝐴𝑒
4𝜋𝑅2
𝑃𝑡 × 𝐴𝑒
𝑃𝑟 =
4𝜋𝑅 2
In dB scale
= 43 − 163 − 10
= −130𝑑𝐵𝑊 = 1 × 10−13 𝑊
 Overall Amplification required is more than 130 dB

 With this high gain, there is high probability of instability in
the repeater.
 Sufficient isolation is needed between receiver and transmitter
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 Nominal figure of this isolation is 40 dB more than the gain

130 + 40 = 170 𝑑𝐵
 This isolation is achieved through
 Frequency separation between transmitter and receiver
 Filtering
 RF shielding
 Orthogonal polarization between 𝑇𝑥 & 𝑅𝑥
 ITU allotted spectrum for Space Communication, examples
are,
 1. Why uplink and downlink frequencies are widely separated?

 2. Why downlink is lower than uplink frequency?
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 Why downlink frequency is lower than uplink frequency?
 For Global Coverage satellite antenna beam width is 17 deg.
 With satellite gain fixed, free space loss reduces with frequency.
 Lower frequency requires lower power.
 As power is premium at satellite, lower frequency is used for
downlink
 Functions of the repeater
 Receive signal from service area (Receive antenna)
 Amplify only the required receive band (Filter & LNA)
 Convert to downlink band (Mixer, LO, Filter, amplifier)
 Amplify and remove the spurious signal (Power Amplifiers, Filters)
 Transmit to the service area (Transmit antenna)
 Most of the circuits used in this repeater are non linear.
General model of nonlinear representation is by Taylor’s series
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 If there are two equal sized carriers
 𝑽𝟎 will have many components like
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• It rejects the out of band signals that includes transmission
Input band pass filter
from
– same satellite,
– adjacent satellite
– any out of band signal received from service area.
• Typical bandwidth is 500 MHz.
Low Noise Amplifier (LNA)
• The first amplifier provides about 20 dB gain to the very weak signal and adds low noise that is
why it is called LNA.
• More gain of the order of 30 dB or more are provided in the subsequent amplifying stages to the
input requirement of down converter.
Important specifications of RF amplifier are,
 Noise Figure,
 Receiver sensitivity or min. detectable signal level
 Gain
 Dynamic range
Down Converter & LO
 It is a non linear device which mixes input signal with locally generated signal to
 produce required downlink frequency.
 To reduce unwanted harmonics a BPF is put after the Mixer.
 In some cases down conversion to IF at lower frequency is also done and then
the signal is up converted. This is called double conversion repeater.
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 Easier to make cost and power efficient filters at lower frequencies
 Two step conversion:
 From RX frequency to lower IF
 From lower IF to TX frequency
 Signal processing and amplification done at IF
 Two step conversion architecture common for Ku band (14/11 GHz band)
 Drawback 2PAs
 HPAs are least reliable components
 Usually substantial redundancy is built – typically M:N = 2:1 (i.e. one spare HPA for every
active one)
 Strict emission requirements – highly selective filters
 Filters frequently followed by phase equalization circuits – extremely important for digital
communication transponders
 Local Oscillator
 The local oscillator base frequency is of the order of 10 to 100 MHz
 This is multiplied and amplified to generate the required LO frequency for mixing.
 Important parameters for LO are,

 LO stability
 Oscillator phase noise (short term random fluctuations in freq. or phase)
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 Need of frequency segmentation
 Generally power amplifiers cover complete band but gain provided is relatively
low. Also it is very nonlinear.
 For large number of carriers input, each carrier gets only a small share from the
power amplifier and large number of intermodulation products are generated
that increases the noise in the wanted signal.
 To avoid these two constraints, the band is divided into several sub-bands called
 channels.
 Each is provided with a separate power amplifier and then all signals are
combined.
 This part of sub-band generation and signal handling is called transponder.
 Input De-mux
 Input sub-band formation is done through a set of BPF called Input (de)Multiplexer.
 These filters should have high adjacent channel rejection and low amplitude and phase ripple over the pass
band.
40 𝑀𝐻𝑧 36 𝑀𝐻𝑧
 Total of 500MHz of spectrum available
 Each transponder occupies 40MHz (36MHz for signal and 4MHz for guard band)
 Frequency is reused through orthogonal polarization – allows separation of 20MHz between two
transponder channels
 Due to orthogonal polarization based frequency reuse – 24 transponders in 500MHz bandwidth
 Each transponder is allocated a pair of frequency allocations
 Transponder is single manageable capacity unit of a satellite
 Domestically price for a transponder capacity is about 1.5M$-2M$/year
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 Frequency Planning
 Example: Transponder 3 works on Vertical polarization, transmits in the range 3740-3780MHz

and receives 5965-6005MHz
 Power Amplifier
 When power requirement of more than 20 𝑊 Travelling Wave Tube Amplifiers
(TWTA) is used as High Power Amplifier (HPA)
 TWTA introduces nonlinearity. Linearizers are used but that increases the
complexity, weight and cost.
 Solid State Power Amplifier (SSPA) are used when lower than 20 𝑊 is required.
 SSPA is less efficient compared to TWTA But it needs less space , weight and
lower voltage operation
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 Output MUX
 All HPA outputs are combined through another bank of BPF. This is called
output multiplexer.
 This is high power and low loss filter
 Output of OMUX is connected to transmit antenna.
Transponder - Input Mux, High Power Amplifier and output Mux
C - Band Transponders
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Ku - Band
Transponders
The overall specifications of transponder is,

 Channel bandwidth,
 Adjacent channel rejection,
 Group delay
Regenerative transponders
 On board processing (OBP)

 Transponder – “switch in the sky”
 Usually deployed along with multi-beam antennas
 Beams are narrow – high gain
 Point to point communication provides link budget advantages
 Capacity of the link is increased – better spectrum utilization
 Used in Ka band where antenna arrays are smaller (high operating frequency)
 Switched beams, high-gain antennas increase re-use of the spectrum
 Design of the satellite more complicated due to all of the processing requirements
 On board processing increases latency
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 For multi beam operation there may be requirement form sending sub band signal
 from one beam to other beam.
 This is done by
 Microwave switch matrix, or
 IF switch matrix.
 When there is requirement of base band data routing the demodulation switching and
re-modulation is done after IF stage
 Uplink noise is not amplified
 In a symmetrical or balanced link Regenerative transponder has 3 dB advantage Over

bent pipe transponder
Simplified single conversion transponder
1. Input signal 3. Output signal- translated by

x1 t   A cos2f 6G t  frequency of LO
x3 t   GKAcos2  f 6G  f LO t 
2. After mixing stage
x2 t   K  A cos2f 6G t   X LO cos2f LO t 
KA cos2  f 6G  f LO t   KA cos2  f 6G  f LO t 
1 1

2 2
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Double conversion transponder
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Antenna Subsystem
Antenna Subsystem
 The antenna subsystem is one of the most critical components
of the satellite system
 The antenna or antennas on board the spacecraft cannot be
large as it is difficult to mount.
 Large antennas, structural problems, need to be folded inside
the launch vehicle during the launch and orbital injection
phase, deployed only subsequently at desired orbit.
 All satellites need a variety of antennas.
 An omnidirectional antenna, which is an isotropic radiator
 Earth coverage antenna,
 Zone coverage antenna, Spot beam antennas that produce spot
beams (fixed orientation with respect to Earth ).
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Antenna Subsystem
 Used for TX and RX of EM  In satellite communication –
waves antenna is critical
 Characterized by the  Light weight
 Antenna gain  High gain (narrow beam)
 Antenna pattern  High efficiency
 Beam-width  Polarization purity
 Efficiency  Satellite usually has 2
 Impedance antenna systems
 Bandwidth  Communication
 Polarization  TTC
 Aperture
 Effective isotropic radiated
power (EIRP)
Antenna Subsystem
 The gain of an antenna is simply its ability to concentrate the radiated
energy in a given direction.
 The beam width gives angular characteristics of the radiation pattern of

the antenna.
 The effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) is the more appropriate

figure-of-merit of the antenna. It is given by the product of the
transmitter power and the antenna gain.
 Polarization is the direction of the electric field vector with respect to

ground in the radiated electromagnetic wave
 The antenna aperture is the physical area of the antenna projected onto
a plane perpendicular to the direction of the main beam or the main
lobe
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Antenna Subsystem
 Antenna is a reciprocal device
 A plot of transmit/received signal level as a
function of angle is known as
radiation pattern
 Maximum power direction in
the radiation pattern is called
bore-sight
 Half power beam width is the
angular separation between
half power (−3𝑑𝐵) across
bore-sight
Antenna Subsystem : Types of Antenna

 Wire antennas (UHF & VHF)  Antenna coverage may be
 TTC  Global beam – cover as much
 Mobile users on the ground as possible (17 degrees of
beam-width from GEO)
 Horn + reflector antennas
 Spot beams – cover smaller
(dishes)
area on the ground
 Antenna arrays  Multiple switched beams
 Feeds for reflectors (high gain)  Phase array beams
 Multiple feeds + reflector  Orthogonally polarized beams
(phased arrays)
 Used to generate multiple
beams
 Used for pattern shaping
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Antenna Subsystem
 Radiation intensity 𝑃(𝜃, 𝜑) is the power radiated per unit solid angle from
an antenna in (𝜃, 𝜑) direction.
 Directive gain 𝐷(𝜃, 𝜑) is the measure of focussing property of an antenna
 The beam width is related to the power gain 𝐺

𝑮(𝜽, 𝚽) = 𝟒𝝅/𝛀
 Ω = solid angle (in steradian) = Δ𝜃 ΔΦ
 Δ𝜃 = beam width in the azimuth direction (in radians)
 ΔΦ = beam width in the elevation direction (in radians)
𝑃𝑡
= total radiated power per unit solid angle
4𝜋
Antenna Subsystem
z
Measure of the ability of an antenna to
concentrate radiated power in a particular
OP direction

Transmitting r • Radiation intensity = Power per steradian
antenna = (,) [watts/steradian]
y

x
Distance (r) is very large
where, η is the efficiency of antenna

Antenna Gain G in (𝜃, Φ) direction is
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Antenna Subsystem
 Generally, antenna gain G is referred to the bore sight for maximum gain.
 Antenna gain is related to the physical parameters of the antenna as
4 Aeff 4 A 4 d 2  d 

2
G     
  4   
2 2 2
• Half power beam width 𝜃3𝑑𝐵 is expressed in terms of Wavelength and antenna
diameter as
Antenna Subsystem
The global or Earth coverage antenna has a beam width of 17.34°.

Beam width < 17.34°, smaller coverage area
Beam width > 17.34°, loss of power
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Antenna Subsystem
 Satellite antenna can be global or regional or spot
depending on service requirement.
 It can be shaped to reduce wastage of radiation into
unwanted area like sea.
 Shaping of beam is done by shaping reflector or array of
antenna.
Antenna Subsystem: Coverage
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Antenna Subsystem: Coverage
Indian Sub Continent Ku-band beam
Polarization
 Polarisation is the orientation of E field vector of propagating EM wave.
 As Polarisation diversity is used in satellite communication, the interference due to

impure polarisation is to be considered.
 XPI is the cross pol interference.

 XPD is the cross pol discrimination.
 Polarisation could be linear. e.g., vertical or Horizontal.
 It could be circular, e.g., Right Hand Circular (RHC) or Left Hand Circular (LHC).
 In practice, it is elliptical.
 Axial Ratio defines the loss due to ellipticity.
(𝑬𝒎𝒂𝒙)
𝑨𝒙𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐 =
(𝑬𝒎𝒊𝒏)
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Polarization
Types of Antenna
 Reflector Antennas
Focal point fed parabolic reflector Offset fed sectioned parabolic reflector
Cassegrain fed reflector

Array fed cylindrical reflector
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Types of Antenna
 Phased Array Antenna
𝐾𝑎 band antenna array

Typical phased array antenna structure (NASA)
Life of a Satellite
 Mainly depends on
 On board fuel capacity
 Component and subsystem reliability
 Life time of current satellites are kept around 15

years
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Satellite space environment

 Zero gravity
 Difficulty in liquid flow
 Ease of antenna deployment and
 Solar panel manoeuvring.
 Negligible atmosphere pressure about 10-7 torr
 increase friction between moving surfaces.
 Special lubrication needed
 outgassing of electronic components
 increases surrounding gas pressure
 High temperature variation
 dynamic range 330K to 350K
 Space debris and particles
 protons, electron, cosmic rays, meteorites,
 man made space objects,
 reduction in solar cell efficiency
 Finite Eccentricity of earth orbit
 variation of solar flux resulting variation of solar power generation.
Satellite space environment

 Magnetic field
 very low, - 1/300 relative to earth surface
 Van Allan belt
Due to earth magnetic field cosmic particles are charged and
captured by earth forming a dense layer.
 Mainly depends on
 on board fuel capacity
 component and subsystem reliability
Life time of current satellites are kept around 15 years
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Reliability
 Reliability of satellite is mainly governed by the reliability
of its critical components.
 Reliability can be improved by keeping redundant
components ready at satellite.
 Redundant components replace the failed component
through switches.
 it is not possible to keep redundancy for some components,

like, antenna, solar panel etc.
Reliability
 It is the probability to perform intended function over
specified time and operating condition
t
R  e 0
  dt
 where, 𝝀 is the component failure rate
number of component failures in given time

𝜆=
number of components surviving
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Reliability :Failure modes of components

Burn-in
EoL
Reliability
 In satellite system, careful selection of components
are done based on
 Components complexity
 Components heritage
 Manufacturing process
 Manufacturers’ credentials
 Spent Shelf life
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Reliability
 In satellite system, early failures of components are
detected and eliminated to a large extent through a test
called Burn-in
 Components are kept in specified condition i.e.,

 Specified input, output load, power, temperature, pressure,
Relative Humidity etc.
 For about 168 hrs. or 7 days.
Reliability
 But the main aim is to eliminate the random failure during
its operating life time.
 This is done using reliability engineering techniques.
 The wear out phase can be delayed by improving Material
selection and manufacturing process
 Assuming constant failure rate over time
t 1
 t
Re e m 𝑚=
𝜆
𝑚- Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF)
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Reliability-Test- Series
When components are connected in series, failure of any component fails the
complete system.
The overall reliability is
Ex: What is the overall reliability for two components in series When R1 and R2 both
are equal to 0.9, When R1 =0.9 and R2 = 0.7
For series connection,

Ro= R1 x R2 = 0.9 x 0.9 = 0.81
Ro= R1 x R2 = 0.9 x 0.7 = 0.61
Note: overall reliability is lower than that of the lowest
Reliability –Test Parallel

When components are connected in parallel, system failure occurs when all the
components are unreliable.
Consider a system with i parallel elements, in which reliability of each element is

independent to all others.
If Qi is the unreliability of the i-th element, then Probability of all units will fail is product
of Individual unreliability
𝑄0 = 𝑄1 × 𝑄2 ⋯ 𝑄𝑖
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Reliability
when all of them are equal, then 𝑄0 = 𝑄 𝑖
unreliability has decreased because, 𝑄 𝑖 < 𝑄
Therefore reliability has increase as, 𝑅0 = 1 − 𝑄0
Overall reliability can be derived from individual Element reliability as,

when all of unreliability are equal, then 𝑄0 = 𝑄 𝑖 and 𝑅 = 1 − 𝑄
𝑅0 = 1 − 𝑄0
𝑅0 = 1 − (1 − 𝑅) 𝑖 𝑅0 = 1 − 𝑄 𝑖
Reliability
Ex: What is the overall reliability for two components in parallel When
R1 and R2 both are equal to 0.9
For parallel connection,
Ro= 1 – (1 – R1) (1 – R2)
= 1 – (1 – 0.9) (1 – 0.9)
= 0.99
When 3 components having reliability R1 , R2 and R3 are connected in

parallel
Ro= 1 – (1 – R1) (1 – R2) (1 – R3)
= 0.999
Note: Parallel configuration improves the overall reliability
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Reliability
 In practice, redundant components are kept in parallel through
switches.
 When primary component fails the redundant component is
used, thus improving the overall reliability
Overall Reliability
Ro  RAOCS  RTTC  RProp  RTh  RPow  RStruct  R payload
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Reliability
Reliability
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2-for-1 Redundancy.
3-for-2 Redundancy
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Reliability –Figure of Merit

Redundancy increases Mass
𝑟
𝐹𝑜𝑀 𝐹𝛾 =
𝑀
where, M increase in mass due to redundancy
𝑅′ Reliability with redundancy

𝑟= =
𝑅 Reliability without redundancy
Conclusion
 Topics Covered
 Satellite Subsystems:
 Attitude and Orbit Control Electronics
 Telemetry and Tracking
 Power subsystems
 Communication Subsystems
 Satellite Antennas
 Reliability and Redundancy
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ECE4010 M3 Subsysems

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24-10-2021

ECE4010 Satellite Communication

 Telemetry ,Tracking and Telecommand (TTC)

 Reliability and Redundancy

2 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

3 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

Satellite Subsystem or Satellite Bus

 A communications satellite may be regarded as comprising

4 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

Functions of Satellite Bus

5 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

Functions of Satellite Bus

6 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

Functions of Satellite Bus

7 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

Major components of a Lockheed Martin remote sensing satellite

Major components of a Lockheed Martin remote sensing satellite

BBC Documentary 2013 - How to build a satellite https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fGpCRHV7Tg

Altitude and Orbit Control (AOC) system

10 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

Altitude and Orbit Control (AOC) system

11 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

AOCS: Altitude Control Subsystem

 Following are the two methods to make the satellite that is

 Three axes method

12 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

Spinning the satellite

 In general, it can be rotated at 30 to 100 rpm in order to

 Satellites are of this type are called as spinners.

13 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

Spinning the satellite

Intelsat-1 to Intelsat-4, Intelsat-6

14 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

Spinning the satellite

 The direction of this motor will be opposite to the rotation of

 The satellites, which perform this kind of operation are called

15 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

16 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

17 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

18 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

Three axes method

19 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

20 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

21 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

22 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

Accuracy of these IR sensors are 0.05 deg

23 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

24 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

25 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

26 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

Orbit Control Subsystem

27 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

 The disturbing Torque is estimated from sensor output and by

28 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

Fuel is Hydrazine N2H4

30 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

31 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

Tracking, Telemetry and Command : TTC

32 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE

Tracking, Telemetry and Command : TTC

 ISTRAC network major functions:

33 Dr. S. Hariharan, SENSE