Satellite Link Budget¶

In this section we are going to explain what is a satellite link budget and what are the main parameters it involves.

Satellite Communication System¶

Assuming that a telecommunication system is composed by a transmitter a medium and a receiver, the link budget is the accounting of all gains and losses in the power signal from the transmitter, passing through the medium, to the receiver. To easily understand, we can analyse the satellite system showed in figure 1. Considering a signal one-way-travel, and just analyzing the uplink path, the link budget will perform the power received by the satellite taking in account the attenuation of the link.The link, in this case, is composed by the transmitter: the Earth Station, the media: the atmosphere and free space, and the receiver:_the Satellite_.

 

. Figure 2 - Gain and losses from a signal travelling from a transmitter to a receiver, considering a uplink path. P is the power before the transmitter amplifier, Gain is the transmitter amplifier gain, PR is the power received, Loss 1 the power loss due to the transmitter equipment, Loss 2 the power loss due to the atmosphere effects, Loss 3 the power loss due to the receiver equipment.

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To fully understand what is the link budget first we must understand how it is formed a satellite communication system. A satellite system is composed of three operational components: the ground segment, the space segment and the control segment.

• The space segment contains the satellite itself (or satellite constellation) and the uplink and downlink satellite links.
• The ground segment consists of all the traffic earth stations.
• The control segment consists of the ground facilities and systems for control and monitoring the satellite.