Satellite Communications

This book is a general introduction to satellite communications. It is intended for those engineers and technicians working in the field who would like to get an overall understanding of the issues. Managers who need a sound understanding of the implications of the latest technology in improving the system efficiency and cutting costs will also benefit. It does not require a specific background although a basic knowledge of digital communications would be useful.

The book introduces the basic orbital parameters, the space environment, followed by a detailed presentation of the link budget and various satellite access schemes. The ground station architecture and requirements are formulated. Channel coding and joint source-channel coding are introduced. The building blocks of the satellite platform and the satellite payload are discussed, bent-pipe versus on-board processing architectures are compared.

Satellite services, installation in orbit, limitations and solutions for TCP/IP traffic over satellite are covered. Network dimensioning and MAC layer issues will help you in the system optimisation. Examples of how to achieve privacy at no extra cost, protection from jamming and inter-satellite links are examined.

A brief history of Australian contributions in this area with a focus on the latest developments in satellite communications equipment (e.g., the S-TECTM codec and the Satellite Network Access Point - SNAP) is also included.