EC2045 Satellite Communication AUC-

R2008

Contents : Modulation and multiplexing, analog-digital transmission system, digital video

broadcast, Multiple Access

Modulation and Multiplexing

The signal processing techniques for encoding, modulating, combining, and formatting
data for transmission in sat comm.
Basic concept is transmission level point (TL)
TL is used in description of power associated with an equipment or interconnection of
links
dB is the unit of TL
Link 1 is at -7 TL and link 2 is at -2 TL. This indicates signal at link 2 is at 5 dB higher than
at link1.
When any system or equipment is at 0 TL, it refers to dBm or dBm0.

Signal processing between user location and satellite earth station

In fig 7.1, the different signal processing levels are shown. With reference to the figure, the
following points are given.

In private networks, lesser no of interconnecting paths present.

1st level of processing: acquiring of analog signal from the user and transmission of it into End
office/ central office.

Transmission of analog signal: either speech from the telephone or modulated data from a low-
speed data terminal (PC modem), transmitted via a loop.

Due to cable insertion loss [ref to fig 7.2], generally business customer location is at shorter
distance to the central office.

2nd level of processing: first time conversion of analog signal into digital signal or frequency
shifting of analog signal referred as Source Processing

Both the conversions are done for multiplexing

Mostly digital source processing is done.

3rd level and 4th level or processing: occur when a composite multiplexed, multi channel signal
formation at Interexchange Office [IC], and at End Office [EO] linking with satellite Earth Station
[ES] interface

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The techniques are broadly classified into 2 types.

Broadband composite analog signal for AM (national networks)/ FM radio transmission

(terrestrial or via satellite)

A high speed, multiplexed digital bit stream transport via optical fiber (terrestrial systems) / via
satellite

Fig 3.1 the different signal processing levels

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Fig 7.2

Source Signals: VOICE, DATA AND VIDEO

The following table 3.1 gives the quantitative and qualitative requirements for each type of
signal namely telephone speech signal, data signals of various types, and video signals. The
signals may be of both broadcast and business teleconferencing quality.

Table 3.1

Bandwidth occupied 300-3400Hz

Frequency spacing between carriers 4kHz
Speech Activity 30-40%
SNR 50 dB
1) The telephone Speech Signal

As referred in fig 3.3, telephone speech signals exhibit an amplitude distribution. With a little
bit analysis we can conclude that crosstalk interference must be kept at levels -65dBm0 or less
[with ref to CCITT specification].

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Fig 3.3

2) Data Signals

3 broad classifications of data signals are as follows:

Narrowband data [<= 300 b/s] telegraphy rates tele-printers

Voiceband data [300 b/s to 19 kb/s] --- fax and transactional services --- data modems

Wideband data [> 19 kb/s] --- e-mail , high speed FTP, CAD file, imaging satellite, fiber optics
and digital radio channels

3) Video Signals

At present, 2 types of video signals transmitted. They are

1. Broadcast quality commercial TV : having high resolution, high-quality signals ; require large
analog BWs or high data rates
2. Business teleconferencing TV: lower data rates [<=1.544 Mb/s] with huge level of signal
processing techniques are applied to reduce the data rate and BWs

ANALOG TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS

Transmission of signals via satellite with emphasis on telephony signals are described below.

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There are 2 distinct techniques used.

a) SCPC : Single Channel Per Carrier many voice channels multiplexed at an ES to produce
single voice channel or single voice channel are modulated by a single carrier
b) MCPC : Multiple Channel Per Carrier different terrestrial systems employ AM to
generate analog signals, received at ES, multiplexed at ES to produce groups voice
channels, with each group assigned with individual carrier

Analog SCPC systems use FM technique to transmit a single VF channel on its own carrier
frequency.
Nowadays AM DSBSC or AM SSB SC is used in SCPC systems.

Amplitude Modulation

Using a product modulator, AM can be generated where in one input is message signal and the
other input is high frequency carrier signal which generates double side band full carrier output
with carrier present. It is shown in fig 3.5

Fig 3.5 AM modulation

But conventional DSBFC system shown above popularly called as Conventional AM is not
efficient because a considerable amount of transmitter power is utilized in sending the non-
information-bearing carrier component.

The next system is simply not to send the carrier component of the AM signal over air. Using
Coherent detection technique, at the receiver the information is recovered. This method is

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referred as AM double sideband suppressed carrier [DSB-SC]. Due to the elimination of carrier,
power requirement at the transmitter is considerably less compared to conventional AM
method.

The next system employs a band pass filter at the transmitter side of DSB-SC method so as to
transmit only one side band instead of both the generated sidebands as in the case of DSB-sc
method. In this way the carrier component as well as one of the side bands as eliminated which
makes the required band width is lesser than DSB-SC method. Such systems are Single side
band suppressed carrier AM [SSB-SC] which are exclusively used in frequency-division multiplex
[FDM] systems of telephone networks and also in SCPC systems.

Introduction to Multiple Access and Assignment methods

Contents : Multiple Access: FDMA, TDMA, CDMA, Assignment methods

Book ref: dennis roddy & some parts from prtichard

Single Access : A transponder channel aboard a satellite may be fully loaded by a single
transmission from an earth station. This is referred to as a single access mode of operation.

Multiple Access : a transponder may be shared by a number of carriers, originate from a

number of earth stations geographically separate. Each earth station may transmit one or more
carriers. This mode of operation is termed multiple access.

Need for Multiple Access:

To exploit the satellites geometric advantage of covering more areas which are located
faraway.

Types:

Frequency division multiple access [FDMA]

Time-division multiple access [TDMA]
Code-division multiple access [CDMA]
Space-division multiple access [SDMA]

FDMA:
Transponder is channelized using multiple carriers
BW associated with each carrier = BW requirement for a single voice channel
Can use either analog or digital transmission in either continuous or burst mode

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TDMA:

Use of a single digitally modulated carrier per transponder

BW associated with the carrier = full BW of transponder
Maximizes the attainable bit rate of the transponder
Bit rate of the carrier is time shared between a number of ES such that sum of the traffic
information rates [plus overhead] between individual ES can never exceed the rate of
the carrier.

CDMA:

Uses a digitally modulated carrier

Each ES transmits simultaneously at a specified high rate with each source message is
uniquely coded
The intended receiving station with appropriate decoder can retrieve the message
Carrier rate = many times X source rate
Utilizes the entire transponder BW

i.e all signals which are spreaded in time / frequency in this technique are simultaneously
received in an ES. Only the desire signal can be received by the ES using correlation. All the
other signals will appear as random noise to the correlation decoder of this particular ES.

Space Division Multiple Access [SDMA]:

Another method of accessing the transponder of the satellite can be more than one ES located
at diff geographical stations can access the satellite transponder. But all ES use the same
frequency. This technique is called as Frequency Reuse.

FDMA

2 types exist namely MCPC and SCPC. The output from the ES is a composite Spectrum.

1. MCPC:

[pritchard]

MCPC derived from terrestrial FDM systems.

From figure 3.8 a spectral occupancy plan of a transponder using MCPC shows that the
BW of individual channels may vary.
Either analog / digtal transmission mode is used

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Incase of analog transimmison usage, individual channels are multiplexed in groups to

form a FDM assembly and then modulated on an FM carrier.
Incase of digital transmission usage, TDM is used to combine individual digital baseband
signals. The composite digital baseband signal is then modulates a carrier. [PSK is
generally preferred]
In both cases, multiple carriers are present in the same transponder. The disadvantage
is non linear impairments due to transponder characteristics.
As shown in fig 3.8a, the carriers can have a varying BW [representing diff numbers of
channels] per freq slot.
For spectral separation or modulated carriers separation using guard bands 10% of the
total BW of transponder is consumed.

Single Channel Per Carrier [SCPC]

As shown in fig 3.8.1b, a composite SCPC spectrum consists of many carriers in adjacent
frequency slots occupying the transponder BW, each carrier is being modulated with the
information from a single voice or data source.
Transmission can be either analog [using FM / AMSSB-SC] or digital [PSK]
Usually SCPC system is designed for burst operating mode, using voice activated
carriers. In such cases, indiv carriers are turned off during the silence intervals between
speech bursts in normal conversational telephony.
C/I = function (no of turned on indiv carriers in the transponder). The above method
results in 4 dB power savings. Due to on/off charc of speech, intermodulation distortion
is also reduced

Assignment Methods

Multiple access also may be classified by the way in which circuits are assigned to users
(circuits in this context implies one communication channel through the multiple-access
transponder). Circuits may be pre-assigned, which means they are allocated on a fixed or
partially fixed basis to certain users. These circuits are therefore not available for general use.
Pre assignment is simple to implement but is efficient only for circuits with continuous heavy
traffic.

An alternative to pre assignment is demand-assigned multiple access (DAMA). In this

method, all circuits are available to all users and are assigned according to the demand. DAMA
results in more efficient over all use of the circuits but is more costly and complicated to
implement. Both FDMA and TDMA can be operated as pre assigned or demand assigned

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systems. CDMA is a random-access system, there being no control over the timing of the access
or of the frequency slots accessed.

These multiple-access methods refer to the way in which a single transponder channel is
utilized. A satellite carries a number of transponders, and normally each covers a different
frequency channel, as shown in following figure. This method shows usage of FDMA to whole
satellite.

Review of Single Access:

A single modulated carrier accesses the entire BW of the transponder

Used in heavy-traffice routes
Require large sized antennas

Ex: FDM / FM carrier using 960 one-way voice circuits, 30-m diameter antenna

Ex: FDM / FM carrier using 960 one-way voice circuits, 30-m diameter antenna

Single Access

Preassigned FDMA

2 types exist namely MCPC and SCPC. The output from the ES is a composite Spectrum.

Preassigned FDMA - MCPC

Frequency slots may be preassigned to analog and digital signals, and to illustrate the
method, analog signals in the FDM/FM/FDMA format will be considered first. As the acronyms

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indicate, the signals are frequency-division multiplexed, frequency modulated (FM), with FDMA
to the satellite. It will be recalled that the voice-frequency (telephone) signals are first SSBSC
amplitude modulated onto voice carriers in order to generate the single sidebands needed for
the FDM. For the purpose of illustration, each earth station will be assumed to transmit a 60-
channel supergroup. Each 60-channel supergroup is then frequency modulated onto a carrier
which is then upconverted to a frequency in the satellite uplink band.

Figure B shows the situation for three earth stations: one in Ottawa, one in New York,
and one in London. All three earth stations access a single satellite transponder channel
simultaneously, and each communicates with both of the others. Thus it is assumed that the
satellite receive and transmit antenna beams are global, encompassing all three earth stations.
Each earth station transmits one uplink carrier modulated with a 60-channel supergroup and
receives two similar down- link carriers. This method is called as multiple channels per carrier
[MCPC]. This is known as( SSB/FDM)/FM/FDMA : analog MCPC

The earth station at New York is shown in more detail. One transmit chain is used, and
this carries telephone traffic for both Ottawa and London. On the receive side, two receive
chains must be provided, one for the Ottawa-originated carrier and one for the London-
originated carrier. Each of these carriers will have a mixture of traffic, and in the de-
multiplexing unit, only those telephone channels intended for New York are passed through.
These are re multiplexed into an FDM/FM format which is transmitted out along the terrestrial
line to the New York switching office.

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Figure B MCPC

Figure C shows a hypothetical frequency assignment scheme for the hypothetical

network of Fig. B. Uplink carrier frequencies of 6253, 6273, and 6278 MHz are shown for
illustration purposes. For the satellite transponder arrangement of Fig. 7.13, these carriers
would be translated down to frequencies of 4028, 4048, and 4053 MHz (i.e., the corresponding
4-GHz-band downlink frequencies) and sent to transponder 9 of the satellite. Typically, a 60-
channel FDM/FM carrier occupies 5 MHz of transponder bandwidth, including guard bands. A
total frequency allowance of 15 MHz is therefore required for the three stations, and each
station receives all the traffic. The remainder of the transponder bandwidth may be unused, or
it may be occupied by other carriers, which are not shown. As an example of preassignment,
suppose that each station can transmit up to 60 voice circuits and that 40 of these are
preassigned to the New YorkLondon route. If these 40 circuits are fully loaded, additional calls
on the New YorkLondon route will be blocked even though there may be idle circuits on the
other preassigned routes.
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Fig C hypothetical frequency assignment

Ex: 5 carriers used to carry 168 voice channels

Fig D Support of 168 voice circuits using 5 carriers. 4 carriers used to carry FDM / FM/ FDMA
channels. 5th carrier is used to send entire multiplexed output to transponder via ES

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Preassigned FDMA - SCPC

Preassignment also may be made on the basis of a single channel per carrier (SCPC). This
refers to a single voice (or data) channel per carrier, not a transponder channel, which may in
fact carry some hundreds of voice channels by this method. The carriers may be frequency
modulated or phase-shift modulated, and an earth station may be capable of transmitting one
or more SCPC signals simultaneously.

Figure 14.5 shows the INTELSAT SCPC channeling scheme for a 36-MHz transponder.
The transponder bandwidth is subdivided into 800 channels each 45-kHz wide. The 45 kHz,
which includes a guard band, is required for each digitized voice channel, which utilizes (QPSK)
modulation. The channel information signal may be digital data or PCM voice signals (see Chap.
10). A pilot frequency is transmitted for the purpose of frequency control, and the adjacent
channel slots on either side of the pilot are left vacant to avoid interference. The scheme
therefore provides a total of 798 oneway channels or up to 399 full-duplex voice circuits. In
duplex operation, the frequency pairs are separated by 18.045 MHz, as shown in Fig. 14.5.

The frequency tolerance relative to the assigned values is within 1 kHz for the received
SCPC carrier and must be within 250 Hz for the transmitted SCPC carrier (Miya, 1981). The
pilot frequency is transmitted by one of the earth stations designated as a primary station. This
provides a reference for automatic frequency control (AFC) (usually through the use of phase-
locked loops) of the transmitter frequency synthesizers and receiver local oscillators. In the
event of failure of the primary station, the pilot frequency is transmitted from a designated
backup station.

An important feature of the INTELSAT SCPC system is that each channel is voice-
activated. This means that on a two-way telephone conversation, only one carrier is operative
at any one time. Also, in long pauses between speeches, the carriers are switched off. It has
been estimated that for telephone calls, the one-way utilization time is 40 per cent of the call
duration. Using voice activation, the average number of carriers being amplified at any one
time by the transponder traveling wave tube (TWT) is reduced. A main earth station is used to
make the connection to the telephone network, as illustrated in Fig. 14.6.

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DEMAND Assigned FDMA

In the demand-assigned mode of operation, the transponder frequency bandwidth is

subdivided into a number of channels. A channel is assigned to each carrier in use, giving rise to
the single-channel-per-carrier mode of operation discussed in the preceding section. As in the
preassigned access mode, carriers may be frequency modulated with analog information
signals, these being designated FM/SCPC, or they may be phase modulated with digital
information signals, these being designated as PSK/SCPC.

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Demand assignment may be carried out in a number of ways. In the polling method, a master
earth station continuously polls all the earth stations in sequence, and if a call request is
encountered, frequency slots are assigned from the pool of available frequencies.

The polling delay with such a system tends to become excessive as the number of participating
earth stations increases.

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