Komunikasi Satelite

Risanuri Hidayat
 Pendahuluan

• World demand for communication facilities carrying many

different types of real-time and non-real-time signals such as
voice, data, facsimile, and video has been growing by leaps and
bounds during the past few decades. The continuing increasing
demand and the resulting large amount of world-wide
communication traffic naturally calls for links with very large
transmision bandwidth.

• Before the era of "communication satellites", long-distance

transmission of information has relied principally on microwave
and suboceanic cables links.
 Pendahuluan
• Microwave links : can provide large usable bandwidth and their
performances are generally good. The major constraint is that
the system is one of line-of- sight (LOS) where the transmitting
and receiving antennas MUST SEE ONE ANOTHER, as the
microwaves travel in straight line. To transmit signals beyond
the horizon, repeater stations are required. The normal distance
between repeaters is between 30 to 50 miles depending on the
terrain. Having many repeaters mean high operating and
maintenance cost, higher security risk. The biggest problem
however is that global communication will require transmission
over large distance across sea and ocean.
• Suboceanic Coaxial Cables : have been
installed and used. The factors limiting
their usage are the high costs, high
signal attenuation and the rather limited
bandwidth of the cables which is
insufficient to cope with growing high
traffic demand.
• An answer that can meet the needs of global
communication is"Satellite Communications" in which
a satellite in space is used as a repeater station in
the sky, a concept invented in the 1940's by scientist
and science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke. Though it
is a very simple concept, it nevertheless has
profoundly changed the world today.
• Essentially a satellite acts as a radio
relay in the sky. Signals such as voice,
data, facsimile and video are sent to it
from antennas on earth, it then amplifies
these signals and send them back to
other earth antennas.
The important advantages of satellite
communications lies in the fact that they can :

• handle a large amount of traffic (b/w of 500

MHz)
• receive/send signals over most of the
populated earth regions.
• Insencitive to distance (same cost)
To summarizes, a communications satellite provides
• A means to reach isolated places on earth
• An alternative to suboceanic cables.
• Long distance telephone (voice) and television links.
• A data transmission link capable of interconnecting
computers and data terminals everywhere.
 Sejarah Komunikasi Satelite
• In 1964,
the Intelsat Consortium was formed to operate and maintain the
International Telecommunication Satellite System.

In 1965,
the first commercial satellite Intelsat I (Early Bird) was launched.

In 1967-1968,
it was followed by Intelsat II and Intelsat III respectively.

In 1971,
it was followed by Intelsat IV.

As of 1982,
there were some 400 earth stations with over 55,000 channels
using the Intelsat System.
1980 1986 1989

1992
• These Intelsat satellites were placed in orbits at a height of
35,860 km ( 22,282 miles ) called "geostationary" or
"geosynchronous" orbits. They appear to be stationary with
respect to a point on earth, since they travel around the earth in
exactly the earth's rotation time.

In principle then, only three satellites in geostationary orbits above

the equator are sufficient to cover the entire earth, except the
uninhabited polar regions.

Signals from several ground terminals known as "earth station" sent

to the synchronous satellite are relayed to the appropriate
destination earth-stations. Some signals must be relayed through a
second satellite to reach their final destinations.
• Satellite Orbits : A satellite in orbit comes under the
influence of two forces, the centrifugal and the
gravitational forces.

For the satellite to stay in a circular orbit of distance

about 42,200 km, the two forces must be equal. In other
words, a geostationary satellite is placed at an altitude
of 35,860 km above the equator. They placed above the
equator to cover the populated earth surface, leaving
the blind reqions around north and south poles.
 Satellite Subsystem
• Geostationary communication satellites will need the
following on-board subsystems to function as a signal
relaying station:
1.Stationkeeping consisting of a thrust and a stabilization
subsystem to keep the satellites in their proper orbital
altitude, position and direction.

Due to the small solar and lunar gravitational forces acting

on the satellite, it tends to deviate from its geostationary
orbit. Since tight control over the satellite's position is
absolutely necessary to keep it geostationary, because most
earth stations's antennas are of nontracking type; therefore
stationkeeping is necessary where occasional corrections to
its orbit are accomplished by on-board thrusters. A certain
amount of fuel or propellant is used each time an orbit
correction is made. Therefore a communication satellite will
only have a limited useful life-span of service.
1. A Power subsystem to supply power to the
electronics.

The satellites is normally powered by solar cells

capturing solar energy. These solar cells are
mounted around INTELSAT's cylindrical body
surface and are capable of giving about 400
Watts of power for Intelsat IV satellite. During any
period when it is eclipsed, on-board batteries
take over the function.
1. A Command and Telemetry subsystem for
transmitting data about it to earth and receiving
commands from earth.

On board instrumentation continuously sends to a

control earth station details of its subsystems and
position. From this station, necessary commands
are sent to it to maintain its orbital position and to
keep it functioning correctly. Each transponder
can be switched on or off as required.
1. An Antenna subsystem for receiving and transmitting
signals.

Most communication satellites contain several

transponders utilizing the whole available 500 MHz of
bandwidth, and serveral antennas. Some antennas have
wide beams (17.3 degree) for earth coverage, while some
have narrow beams (4.5 degree) for densely populated
reqions. The narrow or spot beam antennas will have
increase ERP (Effective Radiated Power) and hence a
larger antenna gain. Either earth-coverage or spot-beam
antennas can be used on the down-link by switching.
1. Transponders containing necessary electronics
subsystem to receive signals, amplify and change
their frequencies, then retransmitting them to earth.

The Radio Frequency,RF, relay section of a

communication satellite is called a "transponder"
(acronym for transmitter and responder). The
transponder and associated antennas form the
primary subsystem. This transponder differs from
conventional microwaves (LOS) repeaters in that
many separate ground earth stations can access it
simultaneously. The transponders operate on
different frequencies for receiving and transmitting to
avoid interference to weak incoming signal by
powerful transmitted signal. Most satellites have
more than one transponder to fill the whole 500 MHz
bandwidth allocated. The individual transponder
bandwidth may vary according to designs.
 Frequency Band
• C-Band
The bandwidth allocated for commercial satelite
communications is limited to 500 MHz in the C-Band
frequency region, known as 4/6 GHz band. In this band 3.7
to 4.2 GHz forms the down-link (transmit) frequency fd, and
5.925 to 6.425 GHz the up-link (receive) frequency fu.

KU-Band
Most commercial satellites today use the C-Band. However
future satellites are being designed for the 12/14 GHz or
KU-Band with up-link frequency fu of 14.0 to 14.5 GHz; and
down-link frequency fd of either 11.7 to 12.2 GHz or 10.95
to 11.2 or 11.45 to 11.7 GHz.
C-Band VS KU-Band
The selection for suitable operating frequency depends on such
factors as size and gain of antenna, bandwidth allocation,
atmospheric attenuation or losses, various sources of noise,
different types of loss and noise point of view, the C-Band can
provide high-quality transmission and is used exclusively by
commercial satellite communication. However there is an increasing
usage of this band in large urban areas because they also
constitute the frequencies used for terrestrial microwave links. Thus
a severe drawback of the C-Band is that of "The problem of
interference between satellite link and terrestrial microwave
links". By far the most serious interference is that from an earth
station interfering with a microwave receiver nearby. This is
because an earth station must transmit high power signal to make
up the large transmission distance loss. Some of the signal spilled
may therefore be substantial to interfere with a microwave receiver,
hence an earth station should not be located in large urban areas.
• On the other hand, the KU-Band are seen
to offer the following advantages :

1.Its earth station antennas can operate in

any large city centers.
2.The gain of antennas are greater on both
the up-link and the down-link than those of
the C-Band having the same size.
• The improvement in antenna gain could be used to
allow the earth station and the stellite antennas to be
made smaller and cheaper or to make up for the
increased signal loss and noise in bad weather. Also
it would mean that for a same size antenna, the
beam-width is less than the C-Band, thus lessening
the interference effects. The disadvantage of the
higher frequency is the increase in signal loss and
noise under poor weather condition with heavy
rain, fog or clouds.