Unit VI

Earth Station Technology

INTRODUCTION :
Earth Stations are a vital element in any satellite communication network. The function of an
earth station from and transmit information to the satellite network in the most cost efficient
and reliable manner while retaining the desired signal quality. Depending on the earth
application, an earth station may have both transmit and receive capabilities or may only have
both transmit and receive capabilities or may only be capable of either transmission or
reception. Further categorization can be based on the kind of service provided. The
fundamental parameter is describing an earth station in the carrier to noise ratio.
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS:
The design considerations depend on a number of factors, some of them are:
1) Type of service: fixed satellite service, mobile satellite service or broadcast satellite
service.
2) Type of communication requirements: telephony, data, television etc.
3) Required baseband signal quality at the destination.
4) Traffic requirements: number of channels, type of traffic continuous or bursty
5) Cost
6) Reliability
International Regulations
Most of the fixed satellite service frequency bands are shared with the terrestrial
systems. For them to coexist, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has specified
certain constraints in the transmitted effective radiated power (EIRP) of satellites.
By limiting the EIRP of satellite for applications like direct broadcast and mobile
communication, a smaller diameter antenna could be used. This leads to exclusive allocation
of frequency bands. The limitations seen in these applications are mainly because of the
technological constraints of the space and ground segments.

Technical Constraints
The transmitter power of a satellite is limited by the maximum DC power which a
satellite can generate and the upper limit of the reliable power amplifiers. The maximal
spacecraft antenna gain is limited by the practical constraints imposed on the satellite antenna
diameter, if the gain falls for a given antenna size with the decrease in the frequency and
therefore the EIRP limitation is more acute at lower frequencies.
Technical constraints apply to the earth stations hardware and software. Factors which need
to be included are the cost for antennas at earth station, QoS to be maintained, cost of other
equipments, floor area, environmental factors, interference considerations and recurring
costs.
INTRODUCTION TO GENERAL CONFIGURATIONS
Any earth station consists of four major subsystems:
Transmitter, Receiver, Antenna, Tracking equipment
Two other important subsystems are
1) Terrestrial interface equipment
2) Power supply.
The earth station depends on the following parameters
i)Transmitter power
ii) Choice of frequency
iii) Gain of antenna
iv) Antenna efficiency
v) Antenna pointing accuracy
vi) Noise temperature
vii) Local conditions such as wind, weather etc,
viii) Polarization
ix) Propagation losses

The functional elements of a basic digital earth station are shown in the below figure 1
Figure 1 A general configuration of an earth station
 Digital information in the form of binary digits from terrestrial networks enters earth
station and is then processed (filtered, multiplexed, formatted etc.) by the base band
equipment.
The encoder performs error correction coding to reduce the error rate, by introducing
extra digits into digital stream generated by the base band equipment. The extra digits carry
information. The presence of noise and non-ideal nature of any communication channel
produces error rate is established above which the received information is not stable.
The function of the modulator is to accept the symbol stream from the encoder and
use it to modulate an intermediate frequency (I.F) carrier. In satellite communication, I.F
carrier frequency is chosen at 70 MHz for communication using a 36 MHz transponder
bandwidth and at 140 MHz for a transponder bandwidth of 54 or 72 MHz. The I.F is needed
because it is difficult to design a modulator that works at the uplink frequency of 6 GHz (or
14GHz) directly.
The modulated I.F carrier is fed to the up-converter and frequency-translated to the
uplink r-f frequency.
This modulated R.F carrier is then amplified by the high power amplifier (HPA) to a
suitable level for transmission and radiation by the antenna to the satellite.
On the receive side, the earth station antenna receives the low-level modulated R.F
carrier in the downlink frequency spectrum.
The low noise amplifier (LNA) is used to amplify the weak received signals and
improve the signal to Noise ratio (SNR). The error rate requirements can be met more
easily.
 R.F is to be reconverted to I.F at 70 or 140 MHz because it is easier design a
demodulation to work at these frequencies than 4 or 12 GHz. The demodulator estimate
which of the possible symbols was transmitted based on observation of the received if carrier.
The decoder performs a function opposite that of the encoder. Because the sequence of
symbols recovered by the demodulator may contain errors, the decoder must use the
uniqueness of the redundant digits introduced by the encoder to correct the errors and recover
information-bearing digits. The information stream is fed to the base-band equipment for
processing for delivery to the terrestrial network. The tracking equipments track the satellite
and align the beam towards it to facilitate communication.

Antenna Systems :
Most of the earth stations use reflector antennas as these antennas provide high gain and
desirable side lobe characteristics. The antenna system options are
1. Large antenna: say, for INTELSAT earth station typical diameter: 30M(Cassegrain
geometry used)
2. Small antenna: say, for option o0f direct broad television (DBS – TV). For deep space
communication, the diameter of antenna may be very large, say over 35m. The efficient
utilization of two natural resources- the radio spectrum and the geostationary orbit- are
affected by the side lobe characteristic.
Asymmetric Configurations :
In an axi-symmetric configuration the antenna axes are symmetric with respect to the
reflector, which results in a relatively simple mechanism structure and antenna mount. The
axisymmetric antenna configuration has been used very widely until recently. Depending on
the feed arrangement, several types of configurations are possible.
Two most commonly used arrangements are:
i. Prime Focus Feed:
It consists of a parabolic reflector antenna which is fed from a primary feed source
located at the focus of the parabolic reflector. Owing to the geometry of the arrangement,
the signal reflected from the parabolic reflector posses a planner wave front in the
aperture plane, essential in producing the desired radiation pattern. Such a feed
arrangement leads to a larger antenna noise temperature because the feed horn is pointed
towards a relatively hot earth and therefore picks up a significant amount of noise.
Additional between the feed and the low-noise amplifier (LNA); unless the LNA is
 mounted close to the waveguide used to connect the HPA (high power amplifier) to the
antenna.
ii. Cassegrain and Gregorain systems:
The operating principle of a parabolic antenna is that a point source of radio waves at the
focal point in front of a parabolic reflector will be reflected into a collimated plane wave
beam along the axis of the reflector. Conversely, an incoming plane wave parallel to the
axis will be focused to a point at the focal point. A typical parabolic antenna consists of a
parabolic reflector with a small feed antenna at its focus, pointed back toward the
reflector. The reflector is a metallic surface formed into a paraboloid of revolution and
usually truncated in a circular rim that forms the diameter of the antenna. The reflector
dish can be of sheet metal, metal screen, or wire grill construction, and it can be either
circular or various other shapes to create different beam shapes. A mesh screen reflects
radio waves as well as a solid metal surface as long as the holes are smaller than 1/10 of
a wavelength, so screen reflectors are often used to reduce weight and wind loads on the
dish. To achieve the maximum gain, it is necessary that the shape of the dish be accurate
within a small fraction of a wavelength, to ensure the waves from different parts of the
antenna arrive in phase. Large dishes often require a truss structure behind them to
provide the required stiffness.
The feed antenna at the reflector's focus is typically a low gain type such as a half-wave
dipole or more often a small horn antenna called a feed horn. In more complex designs,
such as the Cassegrain and Gregorian, a secondary reflector is used to direct the energy
into the parabolic reflector from a feed antenna located away from the primary focal
point. The feed antenna is connected to the associated RF transmitting or receiving
equipment by means of a coaxial cable transmission line or waveguide.
Feed pattern: The radiation pattern of the feed antenna has a strong influence on the
aperture efficiency, which determines the antenna gain (see next section). Radiation from
the feed that falls outside the edge of the dish is called "spillover" and is wasted,
reducing the gain and increasing the back lobes, possibly causing interference or (in
receiving antennas) increasing susceptibility to ground noise. However, maximum gain
is only achieved when the dish is uniformly illuminated with constant field strength to its
edges. So the ideal radiation pattern of a feed antenna would be constant field strength
throughout the solid angle of the dish, dropping abruptly to zero at the edges. However,
practical feed antennas have radiation patterns that drop off gradually at the edges, so the
 feed antenna is a compromise between acceptably low spillover and adequate
illumination.
iii. Asymmetric Configuration:
The performance of an axi-symmetric configuration is affected by the blockage of the
aperture by the feed and the sub-reflector assembly. The result is a reduction in the
antenna efficiency and an increase in the side lobe levels. The asymmetric configuration
can remove this limitation. This is achieved by offsetting the mounting arrangement of
the feed so that it does not obstruct the main beam. As a result, the efficiency of the side
lobe level performance is improved. The latter improvement is desirable because of the
more stringent performance requirements. Hence the trend is to use this configuration
where possible- especially for lower antenna sizes.
Antenna Mounts :
Description Today's requirements for secure, interoperable communications systems, as well
as rapidly deployable networks for emergency response, are driving the need for inexpensive,
simple, satellite earth station antennas, ranging in size from sub-meter to 5 meters in
diameter. When selecting and siting antennas, systems engineers rarely consider the earth
station antenna's vulnerability to damage or destruction by the forces of nature or man.
Content when selecting the location for an earth station antenna of any size, the
primary consideration is to ensure a clear view of the orbital arc, which allows the antenna to
"see" the maximum number of satellites. Placing an antenna on a rooftop is often the optimal
solution. However, extremely high winds can damage or destroy a parabolic dish antenna.
Most properly installed earth station antennas are designed to survive winds of at least
60 or 70 miles per hour. When located in areas prone to hurricanes, tornadoes, or seasonal
periods of high winds that can exceed these speeds, special considerations should be made in
selecting the location of the antenna.
Properly siting the antenna can increase the chances of surviving high wind
conditions. Locating an antenna on the leeward side of buildings or hillsides, or using large
roof structures, such as air conditioning units as windbreaks, while maintaining a clear view
of the orbital arc, can make the difference between an antenna's survival or destruction in a
storm. As every rooftop antenna installation is unique, it is important to work with the
building owner or landlord in order to determine the optimum location.
Many manufacturers make antennas and antenna mounts capable of surviving higher
wind conditions, than standard units. High wind antennas are more robust, and reinforced
mounts should be considered in areas having an elevated risk of wind damage to outdoor
structures.
In the case of non-penetrating roof mounted antennas being installed in high wind
areas, the maximum amount of ballast recommended by the manufacturer must be installed,
or even exceeded, in order to ensure that the antenna does not move from its moorings during
high wind conditions. The ability of the roof to bear this additional load must be considered
to avoid damaging the building upon which the antenna is mounted. In general, hard
mounting an antenna to a building is preferred over the use of a non-penetrating roof mount.
Having a replacement antenna available in the event of an emergency is a costly, yet
highly effective means of mitigating the risk of prolonged outages in crucial networks.
Installing a second, fully equipped and operational antenna on a nearby building provides full
redundancy, and "pace diversity" for the system. While costly, this risk mitigating option may
be appropriate in high priority, high value communications networks.
The most common antenna mounts used are:
Azimuth elevation mount:
An azimuth mount is a simple twoaxis mount for supporting and rotating an instrument about
two mutually perpendicular axes; one vertical and the other horizontal. Rotation about the
vertical axis varies the azimuth (compass bearing) of the pointing direction of the instrument.
Rotation about the horizontal axis varies the altitude (angle of elevation) of the pointing
direction. These mounts are used, for example, with telescopes, cameras, radio antennas,
heliostat mirrors, solar panels, and guns and similar weapons. Several names are given to this
kind of mount, including altitudeazimuth, azimuth-elevation and various abbreviations
thereof. A gun turret is essentially an alt-azimuth mount for a gun, with some armour to
protect the weapon and its operators.
The X-Y Mount:
This uses two orthogonal horizontal axes, one above the other, to permit dish rotation to any
point by a combined rotation around each axis. Both designs suffer from the 'keyhole'
problem. In the azimuth mount, the problem occurs at the zenith, that is, vertically above the
azimuth axis. A satellite whose path passes close to the zenith will cause the antenna to slew
rapidly as it tries to follow the spacecraft through a rapidly changing range of azimuth angles.
Theoretically, the required slew rate approaches infinity as the satellite path approaches the
zenith. With the advent of higher frequency operation, the antenna beam width is becoming
narrower, and this leads to higher slew rate requirements if the signal is not to be lost near the
zenith. For operation at 8 Ghz, the beam width is about 0.5 degrees. The solution has been to
use large drive motors and bearings, with a consequent increase in the overall size and mass
of the system, and a large intermittent load on the power supply.
The X-Y mount has two 'keyholes' at opposite ends of a horizontal line through the
pedestal, extended to the horizon. These horizon keyholes require a rapid exchange of
angular position between the two axes, before the antenna can continue sweeping around or
close to the horizon. Apart from the bearings and drives these mounts suffer the disadvantage
of requiring large and costly pedestals. Along with heavy bearings and drives these are
required to resist the substantial wind-age forces experienced on an inevitably exposed site.
Again these forces are applied entirely through each bearing axis, which must be designed
accordingly. Another problem with mounts of this type is that maintenance, for instance of a
bearing, will often require the dish to be removed, which is an expensive undertaking.
The X-Y mount has two 'keyholes' at opposite ends of a horizontal line through the pedestal,
extended to the horizon. These horizon keyholes require a rapid exchange of angular position
between the two axes, before the antenna can continue sweeping around or close to the
horizon. Apart from the bearings and drives these mounts suffer the disadvantage of requiring
large and costly pedestals. Along with heavy bearings and drives these are required to resist
the substantial wind-age forces experienced on an inevitably exposed site. Again these forces
are applied entirely through each bearing axis, which must be designed accordingly. Another
problem with mounts of this type is that maintenance, for instance of a bearing, will often
require the dish to be removed, which is an expensive undertaking.

General Configuration : Feed System

The primary feed system used in existing earth stations performs a number of functions.
Depending on the type of earth station, these functions may be:
To illuminate the main reflector.
To separate the transmit and receive bands to separate and combine polarizations in a
dual polarized system.
To provide error signals for some types of satellite tracking system. A horn antenna is
commonly used as the primary feed at microwave frequencies.

A horn antenna consists of an open waveguide which is flared at the transmitting end
so that the impedance of the free space matches the impedance of the waveguide. This
ensures an efficient transfer of power.
 The figure below shows the block diagram of an orthogonal polarization feed
assembly.A higher mode coupler (mode extractor) provides the error signal to the
mono-pulse tracking system, if such a method is used.The orthogonal mode junction
(OMJ) assembly is used to separate the dually polarized transmit and receive signal.
The orthogonal mode transducer (OMT) separates the two linear orthogonally
polarized signals into a composite linear orthogonally polarized signal on the transmit
side.Because OMT operates on linearly polarized signals, polarizer‟s are used to
convert a circular polarization to a linear.
Polarizer‟s are therefore not required for linearly polarized system.Some earth
stations have the capability to compensate polarization variations introduced by
atmospheric effects by means of a feedback control system.The polarization
properties of an antenna are mainly affected by the characteristics of the primary
radiator and the polarizer.

Tracking System :
Tracking is essential when the satellite drift, as seen by an earth
station antenna is a significant fraction of an earth station‟s
antenna beam width.An earth station‟s tracking system is required to perform some of the
functions such as
i) Satellite acquisition
ii) Automatic tracking
 iii) Manual tracking
iv) Program tracking.

o The operation of the tracking system is explained by using its block diagram which
show below. Communication satellites transmit a beacon which is used by earth
stations for tracking.
o The received beacon signal is fed into the auto-track receiver where tracking
corrections or, in some auto-track systems estimated positions of the satellite, are
derived. In other autotack techniques the feed system provides the required
components of error signal.
The output of the auto-track receivers are processed and used to drive each axis of the
antenna to the estimated satellite position.In manual mode, an operator sets the
desired angles for each axis on a control console.
This position is compared with the actual antenna position, obtained through shaft
encoders, and the difference signal is used to drive the antenna. In the program track
mode the desired antenna position is obtained form a computer. The difference in the
actual and the desired antenna positions constitutes the error and is used to drive the
antenna.
Recent Tracking Techniques :
There have been some interesting recent developments in auto-track techniques which
can potentially provide high accuracies at a low cost. In one proposed technique the
sequential lobing technique has been I implemented by using rapid electronic
switching of a s single beam which effectively approximates simultaneous lobing.
The high rate of switching is achieved by the use of an electronically controlled
feed.This technique, sometimes referred to as electronic beam squinting, requires a
simple single channel receiver and has been reported to achieve a tracking accuracy
approaching that of the auto-track technique.
Another approach, sometimes called as intelligent tracking, the satellite position is
computed by optimal control techniques. The relatively complex computations are
readily performed in an inexpensive microcomputer. The satellite position is obtained
by optimally combining the antenna position estimate obtained from an accurate
gradient tracking algorithm with predictions obtained from a simple, self learning
satellite position model.
 There have also been some interest in employing phase array technique for satellite
tracking specially in applications where the important design criteria are agility, low-
profile and aesthetic. Here the antenna beam can be steered by exciting elements of an
array antenna electronically. If a phase shift is introduced between successive
elements of an array, the beam formed by the array is tilted in a direction determined
by the sign of the phase-shift and the amount of tilt by its magnitude.

Low noise amplifier :

In the earliest earth stations, MASERs were used as the frontend amplifier.These devices are
relatively narrow band, require liquid helium temperatures and henceare expensive with
difficult maintenance requirements.Thus, these were replaced by parametric amplifiers which
could provide wide bandwidths, with the required low-noise temperatures at lower cost and
complexity.
Several improvements have been made to parametric amplifiers over the years.These have
been made possible by the availability of improved devicesand the use of thermoelectric
cooling. In recent years the advent of gallium arsenide fieldeffect transistors has greatly
simplified the front-end amplifier design of earth stations.
These devices provide similar orders of noise temperature and bandwidths as those of
parametric amplifiers but at a lower cost.

High-power amplifier :
The high power amplifier (HPA) in an earth station provides the radio frequency (RF) carrier
power to the input terminals of the antenna that, when it is combined with the antenna gain, it
yields the equivalent isotropic radiated power (EIRP) required for the uplink to the satellite.
The waveguide loss between the HPAis responsible for the calculation of the EIRP.
The output power typically may be a few watts for a single data channel, around a hundred
watts or less for a low capacity system or several kilowatts for high capacity traffic. The
choice of amplifier is highly dependent on its application, the cost of installation and long
term operation, and many other factors.

Types of amplifiers :
Generally, the earth station terminals use high power amplifiers designed primarily for
operation in the Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) at C-band (6 GHz), military and scientific
communications at X-band (8 GHz), fixed and mobile services at Ku-band (14 GHz), the
Direct Broadcast Service (DBS) in the DBS portion of Ku-band (18 GHz), and military
applications in the EHF/Q-band (45 GHz).
Supplementary frequency bands include the ones allocated for the emerging broadband
satellite services in Ka-band (30 GHz) and V-band (50 GHz). Mostly, the frequency used for
the earthto-space uplink is higher than the frequency for the space-toearth downlink within a
given band.
An earth station HPA can be one of three types: a klystron power amplifier (KPA), a
traveling wave tube amplifier (TWTA), or a solid state power amplifier (SSPA). The KPA
and TWTA achieve amplification by modulating the flow of electrons through a vacuum
tube.
Solid state power amplifiers use gallium arsenide (GaAs) field effect transistors (FETs) that
are configured using power combining techniques. The klystron is a narrowband, high power
device, while TWTAs and SSPAs have wide bandwidths and operate over a range of low,
medium, and high powers.
The principal technical parameters characterizing an amplifier are its frequency, bandwidth,
output power, gain, linearity, efficiency, and reliability. Size, weight, cabinet design, ease of
maintenance, and safety are additional considerations. Cost factors include the cost of
installation and the long term cost of ownership. KPAs are normally used for high power
narrowband transmission to specific satellite transponders, typically for television program
transmission and distribution.
TWTAs and SSPAs are used for wideband applications or where frequency agility is
required. Originally, TWTAs provided high power but with poor efficiency and reliability.
Compared to a KPA, these disadvantages were regarded as necessary penalties for wide
bandwidth. SSPAs first became available about 20 years ago. They were restricted to low
power systems requiring only a few watts, such as small earth stations transmitting a few
telephone channels.