SOURCEFORGE » RALF » 2015 Building blocks for a LEO ground station

h1. Introduction

Nowadays, a huge need for LEO is rising. With the spreading of the Internet of Things (IoT), we need more and more Machine To Machine (M2M) communications. However this is not conceivable with GEO satellites because the Time Round Trip is far too high. In this context, the aim of this project is to implement an orbit and link budget calculator for a ground station dedicated to a LEO satellite. The point is to have a ground station that could be autonomous. The program is written in LabView as it is compatible with the antenna’s processor owned by the Telecom Bretagne Lab in ISAE campus.

This report explain how it is possible to calculate the satellite’s position and how to perform the link budget if the satellite is in sight. Thus, the state of art of orbit propagators will be presented followed by a complete description of the Two-Lines Element (TLE). Then, the calculation of the position of the satellite with respect to the ground station (distance, elevation, azimuth) will be explained and we will finish with the implementation of the link budget calculation.

[[State of Art of the Orbit Propagators]]

[[The Two-Lines Element]]

[[Distance Elevation and Azimuth Calculation]]

[[Link Budget]]

[[User Guide]]