ECE 5233 Satellite Communications

Prepared by:
Dr. Ivica Kostanic
Lecture 8: Satellite link design
(Section 4.1, 4.2)

Spring 2014
Outline

Objectives of link design

Elements of satellite link
Free space path loss equation
Signal to noise ratio and link capacity
Examples

Important note: Slides present summary of the results. Detailed derivations

are given in notes.

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 Objective of a link analysis

 Link analysis determines properties of

satellite equipment (antennas, amplifiers,
data rate, etc.)
 Two links need to be planned
o Uplink – from ground to satellite
o Downlink – from satellite to ground
 Two way communication – 4 links (two
way maritime communications)
 One way communication – 2 links One way
(example – TV broadcast) communication

 Two links are not at the same frequency

 Two links may or may not be in the same
band
o Fixed / broadcast satellite services
– usually same band
o Mobile satellite services may use
different bands
 In some systems satellite links may be
combined with terrestrial returns
Two way
communication Page 3
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Elements of a satellite link

 Transmit power
 TX antenna gain
 Path losses
o Free space
o TX/RX antenna losses
o Environmental losses
 RX antenna gain
 RX properties
o Noise temperature
o Sensitivity (S/N and ROC)
 Design margins required to guarantee
certain reliability

Note: satellite signals are usually very weak

– requires careful link budget planning

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 Free space path loss – transmit side

 Free Space Path Losses (FSPL) due to Power flux in the direction of
dispersion of EM wave energy maximum radiation
 Antenna used to focus the energy of the wave in
the direction of the receiver PT GT
W
 Note: antenna gain is usually quoted in the 4R 2
direction of radiation maximum. For other
direction need to use the actual radiation pattern
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 Free space path loss – receive side

Received power

PT GT
PR  W  Ae   Ae
4R 2

Using
2
Ae   GR
4
One obtains

Effective antenna gain (effective aperture) PT GT GR

PR 
Ae   A A  4R /   2
FSPL equation
hA – aperture efficiency of the antenna (50-90%)

FSPL   4R /  
2

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Free Space Path Loss (FSPL)

Equation for FSPL (linear)

FSPL   4R /  
2

R = distance between TX and RX

l = wavelength of the RF wave

Equation for FSPL (logarithmic) – Friis’ equations

FSPL  96.5  20 log  d  miles    20 log  f  GHz 

FSPL  92.44  20 log  d  km   20 log  f  GHz 

Notes:
FSPL grow 20dB/dec as a function of distance
FSPL curves 1-32GHz
FSPL grows 20dB/dec as a function of frequency range
FSPL curves are straight lines in log-log coordinate system
For Geo-Stationary satellites – loss may be above 200dB!

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 Additional losses
 Additional losses
o Misalignment of the antennas
o Atmospheric losses
o Radome losses
o Component mismatch losses
 The additional losses are taken into
account through appropriate design
margins
 Typical design margin 5-10dB
o Component accuracy
o Operating frequency
o Required reliability

Link equation
PR  EiRP  GR  FSPL  AL
AL – additional losses
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Shannon capacity formula
 Shannon capacity formula – establishes
fundamental limits on communication
 In the case of AWGN satellite channel
Minimum energy per bit normalized to
noise power density that is required for a
given spectrum utilization

 S
C  B  log 2 1   Eb  Eb  2  1
 N  min   
N0  N0  
C – capacity of the channel in bits/sec
B – bandwidth of the channel in Hz
S/N – signal to noise ratio (linear) Note: g is the fundamental
measure of spectrum utilization.
Ultimate goal of every wireless
Define g = R/B - bandwidth utilization in bps/Hz,
communication system is to
where R is the information rate in bps.
provide largest g for a given set
of constraints.
C  Eb R 
   log 2 1  
B  N0 B 
 Eb 
  log 2 1    
 N0  Page 9
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Bandwidth utilization vs. power trade-off

7
 Bandwidth utilization increases with an
increase of available power
6
 In power limited regions small increase
Bandwidth limited
of power produce significant increase in
5 bandwidth utilization
Spectral efficiency [bps/Hz]

 In bandwidth limited region large power

4
increase is required for increase in
Eb  Eb  2  1 bandwidth utilization
3  min   
N0   For systems that are in bandwidth
 N0 
limited region – capacity is increased
2
through frequency reuse
Power limited
 By combining power and reuse
1
methods, contemporary systems reach
spectrum utilization of 3-7bps/Hz
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
EbNo ~ Power (linear ratio)

Note: most of contemporary satellite systems are bandwidth limited – lot of

efforts invested in means for spectrum reuse

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Examples

Example 4.2.1. A satellite at a distance of Example 4.2.2. The satellite in Example 4.2.1
40000km from a point on Earth surface operates at a frequency of 11GHz (Ku band).
radiates power of 10W into antenna gain of The gain of the receiving antenna is 52.3dB.
17dB. Find the flux density on the Earth Find the received power.
surface and the power received using
Answer:
antenna with effective aperture of 10
square meters. Received power: -126dBW
Answers:
Flux density: 2.49e-14 W/m2
Received power: -126dBW (-96dBm)

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