Introduction to Satellite Systems

o A satellite is an artificial object which is placed intentionally into an orbit of

any natural satellite. Satellites are used for many purposes i.e. weather
forecasting, digital transmission, scientific research and development etc.
o In a communication context, a satellite is a specialized wireless
transmitter/receiver that is launched by a rocket and placed in orbit around
the earth.
o A satellite can be natural, like the moon, or artificial (human made). So we can
say that a satellite is an object that moves in a curved path around a planet.

o Satellite can travel around planets or around stars such as our sun. All the
planets are satellites around the sun.
o Satellites which are far away from the surface of the earth can cover a wide
area on the surface of the earth.
o The moon is earth's original, natural satellite, and there are many man-made
(artificial) satellites for example: SPUTNIK, ECHO, and SYNCOM.
History of Satellite Systems
There is a long history of the development of satellites system from a
communications point of view. Some important events are shown below in a tabular
form:

Yea Description
r

1945 Arthur C. Clarke publishes an essay titled "Extra Terrestrial Relays"

1957 First satellite, SPUTNIK

1960 First Reflecting communication satellite, ECHO

1963 First Geostationary satellite, SYNCOM

1965 First Commercial geostationary satellite, "Early Bird" (INTEKSAT I): 240 duplex telephon
channel, 1.5 year lifetime.

1976 Three MARISAT satellites for maritime communication.

1982 First mobile satellite telephone system, INMARSAT - A

1988 First satellite system for mobile phones and data communication, INMARSAT -C

1993 First digital satellite telephone system

1998 Global satellite systems for small mobile phones.

Characteristics of Satellite Systems

o Satellites have been launched for various applications and are placed at
different altitudes. Moreover their weights are also dissimilar.
o Provides connections between the Earth-based base station and the satellites.
o The GEO satellites, which are at an altitude of 35,768 km, orbit in the
equatorial plane with zero degree inclination and complete exactly one
rotation in a day.
o The antennas are at fixed positions, and an uplink bank (reverse band) of
1634.5 to 1660.5 MHz and a downlink band (forward band) in the range of
1530 to 1559 MHz, are employed.
 o Ku band frequencies (11 and 13 GHz) are employed for connection between
the base station (earth station) and the satellites.
o A satellite typically has a large footprint, which can be up to 34% of the earth's
surface covered, and therefore it is difficult to reuse frequencies.
o The global coverage of small mobile phones and data transmission typically
cause high latency in the range of about 275 ms.
o LEO satellite are divided into little and big satellites.
o Little LEOs are smaller in size and are in the frequency range of 148 to 150.
o They cause alphanumeric displays at low bit rates (of the order of 1 kb/s) for
two ?way message and positioning information.
o Big LEO satellites have adequate power and bandwidth to provide various
global mobile services (i.e. data transmission, paging, facsimile, and position
location) along with good quality voice services for mobile systems such as
handled devices and vehicular transceivers.
o Big LEO transmits in the frequency range of 1610 to 1626.5 MHz (uplink) and
2483.5 to 2500MHz (downlink) and orbit at about 500 to 1500km above the
earth surface.
o The latency is around 5 to 10 ms, and the satellite is visible for about 10 to
4ms.
o Several satellites are needed to ensure global coverage. The same frequency
spectrum is also used by MEO and GEO.
o In MEO systems, the slow- moving satellites orbit at a height of about 5,000 to
12,000 km above the earth and have a latency of about 70to 80 ms.
o Specialized antennas are used to provide smaller footprints and higher
transmitting power
o

Applications of Satellite Systems

Traditionally, satellites have been used in the following areas:

Weather forecasting
Without the help of satellites, we cannot predict weather. Satellites have the biggest contribution t
about weather changes by studying the several global scenarios.
Several satellites deliver pictures of the earth using infrared or visible light.

Weather forecasting is done through fitting special instruments and powerful cameras in the sat
various climate factors such as air pressure, air temperature and humidity etc.

Play Video

The satellites made for weather forecasting are called weather satellites.

Radio and TV broadcast satellites

Hundreds of TV and radio programs are available via satellites. This technology uses cable in
cheaper to install and, in most cases, no extra fees have to be paid for this service. Today's
diameters of 30-40 cm in central Europe, and the diameters in northern countries are slightly larger

Military satellites
One of the oldest applications of satellites was their use for carrying out espionage. Most of the
are managed via satellite because they are much safer from attack by enemies.

Satellites for Navigation

Even though it was only used for military purposes in the beginning, the GPS (Global Positioning
well known and available for everyone.

Al our navigation system, Google maps etc allows for precise localization worldwide, and w
techniques, the precision is in the range of some meters.

Almost all aircraft and ships rely on GPS as an addition to traditional navigation systems. Many c
with installed GPS receivers. This system is also used for fleet management of trucks or for vehicle l
theft.
There are following applications of satellites in the context of communication:-

Global telephone backbones

One of the first applications of satellites for communication was the establishment of inte
backbones. Instead of using cables, it was sometimes faster to launch a new satellite. These satellite
by fiber optical cables crossing the oceans.

Connections for remote or developing areas

Due to their geographical location many places all over the world do not have direct connecti
network or the internet. Satellites now offer a quick and simple connection to global networks.

Global mobile communication

The latest trend of satellites supports the global mobile data communication. Due to the high la
satellites are not ideal for this task; therefore satellites using lower orbits are needed. The basic pu
mobile communication is not to replace the existing mobile phone networks, but to extend th
Cellular phone systems, such as AMPS and GSM and their successor do not cover all part
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