LEO Constellations

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LEO constellations and tracking

challenges
Krystal Dredge, Director of Marketing, Matthew von Arx, Senior Mechanical Controls Systems
Engineer, and Ian Timmins, Principle RF Engineer at AvL Technologies explain the challenges of
the new LEO constellations from a tracking point of view.

Satellite communications positively impacts nearly development and/or launch during the next five years with
everything we do. As consumers, we unknowingly (and many, many more in the works.
seamlessly) use it when we’re on wireless calls, using apps
requiring data transfer, and watching broadcasts from disaster Why is LEO so popular?
sites and sporting events. As business professionals, we’re Low Earth orbits, like medium Earth orbits (MEO), are
maintaining contact with colleagues and customers in remote dramatically closer to Earth than GEO orbits. Because of this,
locations and accessing data that’s been collected and smaller satellites can be used and they require considerably
transferred via satellite. less power. Satellites in LEO orbit are ideal for Earth imaging
Because of the growing demand for satellite applications, too, because of their proximity to Earth. But the
communications, many new satellites, new constellations and most significant benefits of using LEO and MEO satellites
new applications are now in the works. for communications applications are low latency and
Many of the newer satellites will be quite small and increased throughput.
constellations will be flying in low Earth orbit (LEO). And many Both LEO and MEO constellations experience little or no
of these constellations will have large quantities of satellites latency as compared to GEO satellites. And having little or
flying, adding significant complexity to the communications no latency enables mission critical communications and
effort. applications that are more challenging with GEO.
Most of the LEOs now being developed and/or produced Another reason for the popularity is cost. Smaller satellites
are in highly inclined polar or near-polar orbits. Though their cost less to design and build, and many can be launched
paths will vary, there’s still some concern with collision due together so launch costs are less, too. Cost alone has
to the sheer volume of LEO satellites in development – more provided an ‘in’ for many universities and science-based
than 1,100 LEO satellites have been fully funded for businesses to join the space race and develop, launch,

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to a stationary GEO application, creates a different set of

performance criteria for LEO and MEO ground stations.

Types of LEO tracking antennas

Several types of antennas can be used to track and
communicate with LEO satellites, and all must operate with
high duty cycles. The continual motion of tracking one LEO
satellite after another equates to significant mechanical
performance requirements for traditional Earth stations. LEO
tracking antennas also must move rapidly – both when
tracking a LEO satellite from horizon to horizon and when
GEO & LEO Orbits by Alan Ellis returning (retracing) to a position to link to the next satellite
as it rises.
operate and maintain a LEO small satellite. X/Y antennas are the most widely used and most efficient
Significant to military users is the low probability of mechanically steered antennas for tracking LEO satellites.
intercept for LEO and MEO satellites. As these satellites are X/Y antennas range in size from a small fixed or transportable
in constant motion, it is much, much more difficult for non- 1.2m aperture to a much larger fixed 12m aperture. An X/Y
approved users to intercept, communicate with or jam them. design places the X or elevation positioner parallel to the
The constellations also provide an innate redundancy, which ground. The Y positioner is placed in a vertical plane above
we have become comfortable with in terrestrial based cable and perpendicular to the X positioner, and its rotation ranges
networks, whereby data can be routed through various paths from horizontal to vertical depending on the rotation of the
through the network should a single satellite become disabled. elevation positioner. This design, though simple, pushes
keyholes (areas of data loss) out to the horizons and provides
Why is LEO so challenging? full hemispheric coverage. To track LEO satellites, X/Y
LEO satellites are in constant motion as they orbit Earth, so antennas need to move quickly at a typical speed of three
an individual satellite can only cover (or capture) small areas degrees per second, and even quicker to track a new satellite
of the planet with each pass. So, many LEO constellations once the current satellite passes beyond the ground station’s
will be comprised of dozens, hundreds or thousands of small field of view.
satellites. Some of the better known and now in-development Elevation over azimuth (El/Az) antennas with parabolic
constellations include SpaceX (4,000 satellites), Boeing reflectors also work well, but will have a keyhole area when
(1,300+ satellites), OneWeb (600+ satellites), and LeoSat the antenna is positioned at zenith. These antennas are
(100+ satellites). designed with the azimuth positioner perpendicular to the
Herein lies the complexity. Some constellations, such as ground with the elevation positioner above. Both positioners
LeoSat, will have optical laser inter-satellite communications. can move independently or in a coordinated manner, and for
But most constellations will rely on inter mittent LEO tracking a third positioner is required to dynamically
communications between each satellite and a ground station, change the base tilt of the antenna. El/Az antennas need to
and the data collected by the ground station will need to be move at a typical speed of five to ten degrees per second to
analyzed and correlated with data collected by partner track LEO satellites.
satellites on a continual basis. However, the challenge that One emerging technology is the use of phased array (flat
results from a moving constellation is that each singular panel) antennas. These low-profile form factors can be either
satellite only has line of sight to an Earth station for a short electronically steered arrays or fixed beam antennas that
period of time. Once the satellite moves beyond the field of utilize a mechanical positioner. Electronically steered array
view, the Earth station must seek link to a different satellite (ESA) flat panel antennas can be steered very quickly –
that has come into the field of view. perhaps instantaneously – which eliminates keyhole issues
Tracking and communicating with LEO satellites is and minimizes losses, but they also offer less gain than other
challenging for three reasons. First, LEOs move very quickly
and most are only visible for 20 to 30 minutes during each
pass. This requires an antenna that can acquire the signal,
track the satellite’s path, and upload or download as much
data as possible in this short amount of time. Second, with
so many satellites flying within each constellation, antennas
must be able to communicate through handoffs from one
satellite to the next to the next. Conventional antennas may
require tens of seconds to locate and track a follow-on LEO
satellite. This type of communications outage, though brief
and predictable, is undesirable for data communications, and
in many circumstances, such as voice or video
communications, unacceptable. Third, the high duty cycle
(constant movement and continual use) requires antennas
that are rugged and high performing. The excessive wear
El-Az and X-Y Positioner Diagrams by Matthew von Arx
and tear that comes from continual movement, as compared

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types of antennas. Furthermore, ESA antennas typically have LEO satellite tracking
a +/- 60-degree field of view, and though this may provide Because of the volume of LEO satellites that soon will be
adequate steering for a constellation of large numbers, a flying, the speed at which they’re travelling, and variations in
mechanical positioner may be required for infrequent macro frequencies, tracking LEO satellites is challenging. Any
level movements in combination with the electronic steering terminal or gateway communicating with a LEO satellite will
that would occur continually. Mechanically steered flat panel need to receive satellite positions on a regular basis, and
antennas perform similarly to mechanically-steered parabolic this information is pushed to terminals continually. Many types
antennas and will experience losses with a keyhole at zenith of tracking are employed, including TLE tracking and Parabolic
position. Step Tracking. Though these tracking methods are complex,
an antenna control system such as AvL’s AAQ controller has
Gateways these capabilities and makes LEO tracking simple and
All new LEO constellations will require gateways for tracking manageable.
the antennas, downloading data, and sending information
back to each satellite. Depending on the frequency, gateway TLE tracking
antennas vary in size and complexity. The higher the TLE, an acronym for two-line element or two-line ephemeris,
frequency, the harder it is to position the antenna to track tracking is an ideal tracking method when memory is
and communicate with each satellite. Gateway antennas must constrained. TLE uses two lines of ASCII text formatted into
have absolute pointing accuracy and no backlash. And the 80 columns, and must be paired with an appropriate algorithm
larger the constellation, the more terminals or gateways will containing Standard General Perturbation models, such as
be needed to maintain frequent communications with each SGP, SGP4 or SGP8. These perturbation models serve as a
satellite. propagator, or math engine, which translates the orbit of a
Many gateways are comprised of three antennas: An satellite in terms of pointing angles. The beauty of TLE
active antenna, a passive (ready) antenna, and a spare. Some tracking is in its simplicity: An antenna control system for an
gateways with quick retrace antennas may have one active Earth station reads the TLE through the SGP propagator to
antenna and a spare. Rarely is a gateway an individual determine a satellite’s location and pointing angles at any
antenna. Because of this, gateways can be a significant point in time – but it does not require additional memory to
investment. ‘remember’ the satellite’s location.
New LEO constellations will be heavily populated with
satellites (i.e. have high orbit density), and most will require Parabolic Step Tracking
significantly more gateways than GEO constellations. As Parabolic Step Tracking is a further refined peaking method,
such, most new LEO constellations are working with Earth ideal for tracking satellites that have been in orbit for some
station antenna designers to provide smaller and moveable time and have sub-optimal orbits due to gravitational pull and
(or relocatable) gateway antennas. Instead of a large 10m other external forces. This method starts with TLE tracking
antenna, a LEO constellation can easily communicate with a angles and adds offsets, which are intentional shifts along
2m class to 4m class antenna, such as the multi-band the satellite’s expected path. A satellite initially may be
transportable antennas made by AvL Technologies, and thus acquired by raster scanning over the propagated TLE angles
drive down costs. These antennas can be permanently ‘fixed’ to locate the peak of receive energy. A finer acquisition is
to a site, or temporarily anchored at a site as needed, then then performed by spiral scanning at the satellite’s discovered
packed into cases, relocated and temporarily anchored to a location, and final peaking is performed whereby tracking
new site. AvL’s experience with making military ruggedized offsets are determined with periodic re-peaking along the
antennas – and work in all frequencies – has made these parabola of the primary lobe of the antenna’s signal. Re-
transpor table antennas a solid solution for LEO peaking determines the positional offset angle against TLE
communications. AvL antennas also operate with precision propagated angles then follows the corrected path, which is
and zero backlash, regardless of the operational environment. often parallel to the TLE trajectory.
Constellations with inter-satellite links will require fewer This system is complex due to the combining of Parabolic
gateways. These constellations will be able to maintain private Step Tracking with TLE and SGP propagation, along with
satellite-to-satellite links and minimize the need for continual layers of course and fine scanning data, and failures are still
communication from each satellite to a gateway. possible. A typical failure occurs when an antenna is not able
to locate a satellite’s location during a periodic re-peaking
cycle. To avoid this type of failure, Earth station antennas
are often programmed with instruction for frequent re-peaking;
they follow open loop TLE data to find the satellite and re-
peak on the signal, and the signal loss is often unnoticed.

Summary
Many new LEO constellations will be soaring above us soon,
and they will enhance our daily communications, provide us
with unending sources of new information, and enable many
new applications. Operating and tracking these new antennas,
however, is complex and requires high-duty, rugged, and
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
smart Earth terminals and gateways.

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