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Satellite Basics

Guide To Satellite-based Solutions

A communications satellite is a radio relay station in orbit above the earth that receives, amplifies, and redirects analog and digital signals carried on a specific radio frequency.

In addition to communications satellites, there are other types of satellites:

Weather satellites: These satellites provide meteorologists with scientific data to predict weather conditions and are equipped with advanced instruments
Earth observation satellites: These satellites allow scientists to gather valuable data about the earth's ecosystem
Navigation satellites: Using GPS technology these satellites are able to provide a person's exact location on Earth to within a few meters

What are the different kinds of orbits?

An orbit is the path that a satellite follows as it revolves around Earth. In terms of commercial satellites, there are three main categories of orbits:

Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO): 35,786 km above the earth

Geosynchronous Orbit

Orbiting at the height of 22,282 miles above the equator (35,786 km), the satellite travels in the same direction and at the same speed as the Earth's rotation on its axis, taking 24 hours to complete a full trip around the globe. Thus, as long as a satellite is positioned over the equator in an assigned orbital location, it will appear to be "stationary" with respect to a specific location on the Earth.
A single geostationary satellite can view approximately one third of the Earth's surface. If three satellites are placed at the proper longitude, the height of this orbit allows almost all of the Earth's surface to be covered by the satellites.

Medium Earth Orbit (MEO): 8,000-20,000 km above the earth

Medium Earth Orbit

These orbits are primarily reserved for communications satellites that cover the North and South Pole
Unlike the circular orbit of the geostationary satellites, MEO's are placed in an elliptical (oval-shaped) orbit

Low Earth Orbit (LEO): 500-2,000 km above the earth

Low Earth Orbit

These orbits are much closer to the Earth, requiring satellites to travel at a very high speed in order to avoid being pulled out of orbit by Earth's gravity
At LEO, a satellite can circle the Earth in approximately one and a half hours

GEO vs. MEO vs. LEO

Most communications satellites in use today for commercial purposes are placed in the geostationary orbit, because of the following advantages:

One satellite can cover almost 1/3 of Earth's surface, offering a reach far more extensive than what any terrestrial network can achieve
Communications require the use of fixed antennas. Since geosynchronous satellites remain stationary over the same orbital location, users can point their satellite dishes in the right direction, without costly tracking activities, making communications reliable and secure
GEO satellites are proven, reliable and secure - with a lifespan of 10-15 years

For a more comprehensive understanding of satellite advantages, see benefits of satellite.

Satellite Architecture

Communications data passes through a satellite using a signal path known as a transponder. Typically satellites have between 24 and 72 transponders. A single transponder is capable of handling up to 155 million bits of information per second. With this immense capacity, today's communication satellites are an ideal medium for transmitting and receiving almost any kind of content - from simple voice or data to the most complex and bandwidth-intensive video, audio and Internet content.

Diagrammatic Representation of a Satellite

Diagrammatic Representation of a Satellite

Orbital Location and Footprint

The location of a geostationary satellite is referred to as its orbital location. International satellites are normally measured in terms of longitudinal degrees East (° E) from the Prime Meridian of 0° (for example, Intelsat's IS-805 satellite is currently located at 304.5° E).

The geographic area of the Earth's surface over which a satellite can transmit to, or receive from, is called the satellite's "footprint." The footprint can be tailored to include beams with different frequencies and power levels.

Frequency Bands and Beams

Satellites transmit information within radio frequency bands. The frequency bands most used by satellite communications companies are called C-band and the higher Ku-band. Over the next several years, the use of a higher frequency band known as Ka-band is expected to increase. Modern satellites are designed to focus on different ranges of frequency bands and different power levels at particular geographic areas. These focus areas are called beams. Intelsat offers four beam types:

Global: covering almost 1/3 of Earth's surface
Hemi: covering almost 1/6 of Earth's surface
Zone: covering a large landmass area
Spot: covering a specific geographic area

What is installed on the ground?

All communications with a geostationary satellite require using an earth station or antenna. Earth Stations may be either fixed (installed at a specific location) or mobile for uses such as Satellite News Gathering (SNG) or maritime applications. Antennas range in size, from large telecommunications carrier dishes of 4.5 to 15 meters in diameter, to VSAT antennas which can be as small as under one meter, designed to support services such as Direct to Home TV (DTH) and rural telephony.

The antenna, itself, will generally be connected to equipment indoors called an indoor unit (IDU), which then connects either to the actual communications devices being used, to a Local Area Network (LAN), or to additional terrestrial network infrastructure.

Network Topologies

Depending on the application, satellites can be used with different ground network designs or network topologies. At its simplest, satellite can support one-direction or two-direction links between two earth stations (called respectively simplex transmission and duplex transmission). More complex communications needs can also be addressed with more sophisticated network topologies, such as star and mesh.

The following examples show some of the options available to customers for configuring their satellite networks:

Simplex Transmission

Simplex Transmission