ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM
EET 497: SPECIAL TOPICS
Introduction to Satellite Communications
Fall 2001

Instructor:     Dr. Albert Lozano-Nieto
                        Head, Electrical Engineering Technonolgy Program
                        Penn State University at Wilkes-Barre Campus
                        Room 122, Technology Center
                        Phone # : (570) 675-9245            email: AXL17@psu.edu
                        Course Homepage: http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/a/x/axl17/497sat.htm

Office hours:   Monday to Friday:  9-10 AM
                         For other times, please call or email me to make arrangements

EMAIL: Students are required to activate and use their email accounts.

Meeting times:      M, W, F  10:00 to 11:50 AM   018TC/107TC/113TC
                             
                           

Textbooks. Required: D. Roddy Satellite Communications, 3rd ed., 2001 McGraw-Hill

The students will be required to use the library and other resources in order to study some sections in deeper detail, especially for their presentations.

OTHER:  Students with special needs are encouraged to contact me so we can make the required arrangements.

ACADEMIC HONESTY

The work in all the tests, quizzes and exams is to be yours alone. Failure to abide by this rule or the omission of any other deliberately dishonest act, may result in failure of the course with no late drop permitted. Students are encouraged to work together as much as possible including homework, laboratory work, discussing concepts and strategies, etc. However, the written solutions is to be an individual effort.  Students should consult Policy 49-20 from the Penn State Faculty Senate for further information on Academic Integrity.

STUDENT BEHAVIOR

Students are expected to conduct themselves in a professional, civil and courteous manner between themselves, instructors, other students and the academic community in general. Examples of classroom disruptions include, but are not limited to: talk and read during class; consistently being late for class; shouting at classmates, disrupting others; falling asleep during class; dominating discussions, being disrespectful to others, etc...  These situations will be handled accordingly to the University Policies.

Course goal: This course is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of satellit communications. Topics include geostationary and polar orbits, free space loss, antenna design, satellite services, etc.

EET 497: INTRODUCTION TO SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS
Course Outline and tentative topics

1.- INTRODUCTION: OVERVIEW OF SATELLITE SYSTEMS
        1.1   Course presentation, structure, goals, etc
        1.2   Services and general frequency allocations
        1.3   Specific Satellite Services
            1.3.1        Intelsat
            1.3.2        US Domsats
            1.3.3        Polar orbiting satellites
                1.3.3.1   Weather and environmental monitoring
                1.3.3.2   Search and Rescue
            1.3.4        Globalstar
            1.3.5        Inmarsat and Iridium
        1.4 Other satellite services
            1.4.1 Mobile Satellite Services|
            1.4.2 VSATS
            1.4.3 GPS
            1.4.4 Other Services

 
2.- BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ORBITS
        2.1 Kepler Laws and implications
        2.2 Definition of terms
        2.3 Keplerian data and two-line elements
        2.4 Orbit perturbations
        2.4 Other considerations
                  

3.- THE GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT
      3.1 Conditions for geostationary orbits
      3.2 Antenna look angles
      3.3 Visibility limits
      3.4 Other considerations for geostationary orbits

4.- PROPAGATION OF RADIO WAVES
         4.1 Atmospheric losses
         4.2 Ionospheric effects
         4.3 Rain attenuation
         4.4 Other factors affecting signal propagation

5.- WAVE POLARIZATION
         5.1 Basic concepts of polarization
         5.2 Polarization of satellite signals
         5.3 Signal depolarization

6.- ANTENNAS FOR SATELLITE SYSTEMS
         6.1 Reciprocity theorem
         6.2 Parameters defining an antenna
         6.3 Radiation pattern
         6.4 Effective aperture
         6.5 Aperture antennas
         6.6 Horn antennas
         6.7 Parabolic reflectors and offset antennas

7.- THE SPACE SUB-SYSTEM
         7.1 Power systems
         7.2 Attitude control systems
         7.3 Station keeping
         7.4 Thermal control
         7.5 TT&C
         7.6 Transponders
         7.7 Antennas

8.- THE EARTH SUBSYSTEM
        8.1 Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) Services
        8.2 Transmit-Receive Earth Stations
        8.3 Examples of Ku-band reception

9.- ANALOG AND DIGITAL SIGNALS
            9.1 Analog Telephone signals
            9.2 Analog TV signals
            9.3 Analog-to-Digital conversion

10.- THE SPACE LINK
         10.1 Equivalent Isotropic Radiated Power
         10.2 Losses
         10.3 The link-power budget equation
         10.4 System noise
         10.5 Carrier-to-Noise ratio
         10.6 The uplink
         10.7 The downlink
         10.8 The effects of the rain

11.- INTERFERENCE AND SOLUTIONS
         11.1 Modes of interference
         11.2 Coordination
 

12.- SATELLITE ACCESS
         12.1 Single access
         12.2 Preassigned FDMA
         12.3 Demand-assigned FDMA
         12.4 TDMA

13.- DBS SERVICES
         13.1 DBS considerations: spacing, power, frequency
         13.2 Signal compression
         13.3 The Outdoor Unit (ODU)
         13.4 Uplink

14.- SATELLITE SERVICES
         14.1 Mobile Satellite Services
         14.2 VSATS
         14.3 GPS
         14.4 Other Services

COURSE STRUCTURE This course will be developed in a highly interactive mode, in a seminar structure. The students will be requered to actively participate in the course and present several sections. The assignments and laboratory experiences will be also presented to the rest of the class by the students.

LABORATORY WORK will be a mixture of hands-on experimentation plus research and analysis of case studies provided by the instructor. For those activities indicated by the instructor, students will be required to submit a laboratory report. Please, refer to the following guidelines for the details on laboratory report policies.

Practicum 1:  Frequency management and allocation. The United States frequency allocation
Practicum 2:  Digital Spectrum Analyzer. Basic use
Practicum 3:  Application of Digital Spectrum Analyzer to signal characterization
Practicum 4:  Detection of Television signals in the Ku-band

STUDENT PRESENTATIONS AND PARTICIPATION is extremely important in this course. The direction of the course depends, to a certain extent, on your particular interests in this area. Students will be required to make group presentations periodically, approximately every 2 weeks. Your preparation of this work is critical to ensure the academic success of you and your peers.

Grading: The grading of the course will be based on the following items:

* Partial tests (closed book, closed notes). Total contribution:	35 %
* Final, comprehensive exam	20 %
* Student presentations and class participation	25 %
* Laboratory work and reports: 20%	20 %

Grading Scale:

Revision: August 2001. Albert Lozano