Syllabus - Satellite Communication (EC-603 (C))

Overview of satellite systems

Introduction, Frequency allocations for satellite systems.

Orbits and launching methods

Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion, terms used for earth orbiting satellites, orbital elements, apogee and perigee heights, orbit perturbations, inclined orbits, local mean solar point and sun-synchronous orbits, standard time.

The Geostationary orbit

Introduction, antenna look angles, polar mount antenna, limits of visibility, near geostationary orbits, earth eclipse of satellite, sun transit outage, launching orbits.

Polarization

antenna polarization, polarization of satellite signals, cross polarization discrimination.

Depolarization

ionospheric, rain, ice.

The Space segment

introduction, power supply, attitude control, station keeping, thermal control, TT&C subsystem, transponders, antenna subsystem, Morelos and Satmex 5, Anik-satellites, Advanced Tiros-N spacecraft.

The Earth segment

introduction, receive-only home TV systems, master antenna TV system, Community antenna TV system, transmit-receive earth station.

The space link

Introduction, Equivalent isotropic radiated power (EIPR), transmission losses, the link power budget equation, system noise, carrier-to-noise ratio (C/N), the uplink, the downlink, effects of rain, combined uplink and downlink C/N ratio, inter modulation noise, inter-satellite links. Interference between satellite circuits.

Satellite services

VSAT (very small aperture terminal) systems: overview, network architecture, access control protocols, basic techniques, VSAT earth station, calculation of link margins for a VSAT star network.

Direct broadcast satellite (DBS) Television and radio

digital DBS TV, BDS TV system design and link budget, error control in digital DBS-TV, installation of DBS-TV antennas, satellite radio broadcasting.