5610 - Satellite Communication Systems (3C)
Course Description
Theory and practice of satellite communications. Orbits and launchers, spacecraft, look angles, carrier-to-noise ratio (C/N), link budgets, rain attenuation, modulation, coding, multiple access techniques, propagation effects, and earth terminals.
Why take this course?
Satellite communication systems carry much of the world’s communication traffic, particularly over oceans, and are widely used for television distribution and navigation. Increasingly, satellites are also being used for data relay and personal communication systems. The principles of radio communications have wider application, but the unique attributes of orbiting satellites and the techniques used for communication via these satellites requires a specialized course. The course gives student a broad treatment of the diverse subsystems that make up a complete satellite communication system.
Learning Objectives
- Compute the orbital parameters of a satellite.
- Solve for the azimuth and elevation angles and visibility of a geostationary satellite from an earth station.
- Create link budgets for an uplink and a downlink, and determine carrier-to-noise ratio (C/N) at an earth terminal receiver.
- Calculate the baseband signal-to-noise ratio or bit error rate for a satellite link.
- Design a communications satellite system to meet objectives for signal to noise ratio (S/N) in an analog baseband or Bit Error Rate (BER) in a digital link using appropriate multiple access techniques.
- Estimate the BER improvement obtained with various Automatic Repeat request (ARQ) and Forward Error Correction (FEC) coding techniques.
- Analyze the effect of rain attenuation in a satellite link and the availability of the link based on the geographic location of the earth terminals.
- Justify the type and dimensions of antennas for use on satellites and at earth stations.
- Design satellite communication systems using Geostationary (GEO) or Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to carry voice, video, or data signals using analog or digital modulation.
- Complete end-to-end analysis of satellite communication systems.
- Design tradeoff analysis of power, weight, orbital characteristics and link budget.