Future Earth Stations in 14–12 GHz for Domestic Satellite Communications

Abstract

More and more countries of the world are making plans to change over to higher frequency band of 14–12 GHZ for satellite communications. This band is quite attractive for domestic satellite communications including TV broadcsast as satellites with narrower beams and higher EIRPs have become realities. In this paper, present trends in technology at this frequency are reviewed in relation to future earth stations to be set up in large numbers. A case study is presented with link power budgets for major earth stations and small remote area terminals to work with TV, thick and thin route telecommunications and radio networking in a domestic network. Small terminal sizes have been optimized to make them low cost, while achieving the required quality of communications between them and major earth stations. Study shows that satellite communication at these higher frequencies will be initially power limited rather than bandwidth limited.