Structure of Spread Spectrum Telemetry Radio Link for LEO Small Satellite

Abstract

The paper considers the design of telemetry radio link for low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, particularly based on CubeSat format. A significant limitation of such spacecrafts are the available dimensions for antennas and the transmitting power, which leads to low energy level at the ground receiving point of transmitted signal. The article presents the physical level structure for data frame based on direct sequence spread spectrum technique, which allows for additional signal gain to achieve the required level of link performance. Using such principle also make possible to implement adaptive data rate control depending on dynamics in signal-to-noise ratio when the distance from the satellite to the ground point changes. For proposed data frame structure, an analysis of received information size during a communication session was carried out, which is parameterized on the maximum observable elevation angle of the satellite. The issue of datalink layer interaction between devices is also considered.