Satellite Communications Payload and System

by Braun, Teresa M.

• ISBN13: 9780470540848
• ISBN10: 0470540842
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-09-04
• Publisher: Wiley-IEEE Press

Summary

This book is a unique combination of practical payload systems engineering and communications theory and applications. Payload systems engineering itself is a complex endeavor that people only learn on the job over many years' time, and this book hopes to ease their learning path. There are detailed books on how to design the various kinds of units, e.g., antennas, of a payload but seemingly no books focusing on unit performance at a level appropriate for systems engineering.Potential satellite owners, few of whom have worked in the satellite field, need help to understand how to get what they want from the manufacturer.The satellite bus, particular satellites, and particular and general satellite communications systems have been written about in several books, but the payload has received typically a few pages in all these books.

Author Biography

TERESA M. BRAUN, PhD, is President of Braun Communications Consulting GmbH. She has twenty-six years' experience in satellite and ground systems and technology, twenty-three in communications, and three in navigation, at major corporations. She earned her PhD at UCLA in electrical engineering in 1989.

Table of Contents

PREFACE xix

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xxi

ABOUT THE AUTHOR xxiii

ABBREVIATIONS xxv

1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 What This Book Is About 1

1.2 Payload 3

1.3 Conventions 6

1.4 Book Sources 7

1.5 Summary of Rest of the Book 7

PART I PAYLOAD

2 PAYLOAD'S ON-ORBIT ENVIRONMENT 13

2.1 What Determines Environment 13

2.2 On-Orbit Environment 20

2.3 General Effects of Environment on Payload 27

3 ANTENNA 33

3.1 Introduction 33

3.2 General Antenna Concepts 35

3.3 Single-Beam Reflector Antenna 48

3.4 Horn 54

3.5 Antenna Array 57

3.6 Reflector-Based Multibeam Antenna 64

3.7 Autotrack 68

4 FILTER AND PAYLOAD-INTEGRATION ELEMENTS 79

4.1 Introduction 79

4.2 Impedance Mismatch 80

4.3 RF Lines for Payload Integration 82

4.3.1 Coaxial Cable 83

4.4 Other Payload-Integration Elements Aside from Switch 94

4.5 Filter 97

4.6 Switch and Redundancy 111

5 LOW-NOISE AMPLIFIER AND FREQUENCY CONVERTER 123

5.1 Introduction 123

5.2 Low-Noise Amplifiers and Frequency Converters in Payload 124

5.3 Intermodulation Products 126

5.4 Low-Noise Amplifier 127

5.4.1 LNA Unit Architecture and Technology 127

5.5 Frequency Converter 132

6 PREAMPLIFIER AND HIGH-POWER AMPLIFIER 147

6.1 Introduction 147

6.2 High-Power Amplifier Concepts and Terms 148

6.3 Traveling-Wave Tube Amplifier versus Solid-State Power Amplifier 153

6.4 Traveling-Wave Tube Amplifier Subsystem 155

6.5 Solid-State Power Amplifier 170

7 PAYLOAD'S COMMUNICATIONS PARAMETERS 181

7.1 Introduction 181

7.2 Gain Variation with Frequency 184

7.3 Phase Variation with Frequency 187

7.4 Channel Bandwidth 189

7.5 Phase Noise 190

7.6 Frequency Stability 190

7.7 Spurious Signals from Frequency Converter 191

7.8 High-Power Amplifier Nonlinearity 192

7.9 Spurious Signals from High-Power Amplifier Subsystem 192

7.10 Stability of Gain and Power-Out of High-Power Amplifier Subsystem 194

7.11 Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power 195

7.12 Figure of Merit G/Ts 196

7.13 Self-Interference 199

7.14 Passive Intermodulation Products 201

8 MORE ANALYSES FOR PAYLOAD DEVELOPMENT 207

8.1 Introduction 207

8.2 How to Deal with Noise Figure 208

8.3 How to Make and Maintain Payload Performance Budgets 211

8.4 High-Power Amplifier Topics 223

8.5 How to Avoid Monte Carlo Simulations on Gaussian Random Variables 231

9 PROCESSING PAYLOAD 241

9.1 Introduction 241

9.2 Capabilities of Current Processing Payloads 242

9.3 Digital-Processing Elements Common to Both Nonregenerative and Regenerative Payloads 245

9.4 Nonregenerative Processing-Payload 248

9.5 Regenerative Payload 250

PART II PAYLOAD IN END-TO-END COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

10 PRINCIPLES OF DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS THEORY 259

10.1 Introduction 259

10.2 Communications Theory Fundamentals 260

10.3 Modulating Transmitter 268

10.4 Filters 278

10.5 Demodulating Receiver 281

10.6 SNR, Es/N0, and Eb/N0 293

10.7 Summary of Signal Distortion Sources 295

11 COMMUNICATIONS LINK 299

11.1 Introduction 299

11.2 End-to-End C/N0 300

11.3 Signal Power on Link 301

11.4 Noise Level on Link 311

11.5 Interference on Link 312

11.6 Link Budget 317

12 PROBABILISTIC TREATMENT OF MULTIBEAM DOWNLINKS 321

12.1 Introduction 321

12.2 Multibeam-Downlink Payload Specifications 322

12.3 Repeater-Caused Variation of C and C/Iself and Nominal Value 324

12.4 Combining Antenna-Caused Variation into Repeater-Caused Variation 333

12.5 Payload-Caused Variation of CI(I+N) 337

12.6 Combining Atmosphere-Caused Variation into Payload-Caused Variation 337

12.7 Optimizing Multibeam-Downlink Payload Specified on Link Availability 339

13 END-TO-END COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM MODEL WITH FOCUS ON PAYLOAD 343

13.1 Introduction 343

13.2 Considerations for Both Software Simulation and Hardware Emulation 344

13.3 Additional Considerations for Simulation 352

13.4 Additional Considerations for Emulation 359

References 362

INDEX 363