Personal communications by satellite

Abstract

AbstractPersonal communications (PC) refers to two‐way voice (and possibly data) communications to a small hand‐held unit, capable of being carried by a person and used in various locations. PC via satellite refers to the case where this hand‐held unit communicates directly with a satellite to provide the duplex voice (or data) service. Both geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) and low earth orbit (LEO) satellites have been considered to provide this service. GEO and LEO satellite systems must compete with existing mobile cellular radio systems both in meeting performance requirements and service costs, if they are to be a significant supplier of PC services. GEO and LEO systems each have unique advantages and disadvantages when used to provide a PC service. While these general characteristics are identified in Section 1 of the paper, a more quantitative comparison is needed. This quantitative comparison is made by comparing a GEO PC satellite system, operating at EHF (Ka‐band) frequencies with a LEO system operating at UHF (L‐band) frequencies, including service costs for both systems. The two systems used in the comparison are examples of realistic GEO and LEO system designs for PC service, and although it is not exhaustive, the comparison points out some of the key differences between GEO and LEO systems that affect service performance and cost.