• Introduction to satellite communications
  • What is a satellite
  • Overvieworbits, Van Allen Belt, components of a satellite
  • Satelliteservices
  • Frequencybands for satellite services
  • InternationalTelecommunications Union (ITU)
  • Influenceof atmospheric impairments
  • Milestonesin satellite communications
• Componentsof a satellite communications system
  • Groundsegment
  • Spacesegment
  • Controlsegment
• Communicationlinks
  • Uplink,downlink
  • Forwardlink, reverse link
  • Intersatellitelinks
  • Multipleaccess
  • Performancemeasures
    • Effectiveisotropic radiated power (EIRP), antenna gain, figure of merit, G/T, carrier tonoise ratio
    • Signalto noise power ratio vs. carrier to noise ratio
• Singlebeam and multibeam satellites
  • Beamcoverage
  • Examplesfor beam coverage of LEO and GEO satellites (Iridium, Viasat)
• Transparentvs. regenerative payload

• Orbits
  • Lowearth orbot (LEO), medium earth orbit (MEO), geosynchroneous and geostationaryorbits (GEO), highly elliptical orbits (HEO
  • Favourableorbits:
    • HEOorbits with 63-64^o inclination, Molnya and Tundra orbits
    • CircularLEO orbits
    • CircularMEO Orbits (Intermediate Circular Orbits (ICO))
    • Equatorialorbits, geostationary orbit (GEO)
  • Importantaspects of LEO, MEO and GEO satellites
• Kepler’slaws of planetary motion
• Gravitationalforce
• Parametersof ellipses and elliptical orbits
  • Majorand minor half axis
  • Foci
  • Eccentricity
  • Eccentricanomaly, mean anomaly, true anomaly
  • Area
  • Orbitperiod
  • Perigee,apogee
  • Distanceof satellite from center of earth
  • Constructionof ellipses according to de La Hire
  • Orbitalplane in space, inclination, right ascension (longitude) of ascending node,Vernal equinox
• Newton’slaws of motion
• Newton’suniversal law of gravitation

• Energyof satellites: Potential energy, kinetic energy, total energy
• Instantaneousspeed of a satellite
• Kepler’sequation
• Satellitevisibility, elevation
• Requirednumber of LEO, MEO or GEO satellites for continuous earth coverage
• Satellitealtitude and distance from a point on earth

• Choiceof orbits
  • LEO,HEO, GEO
  • Ellipticalorbits with non-zero inclination, Molnya orbits, Tundra orbits
  • Geosynchronousorbits
    • Parametersof geosynchronous orbits
    • Circulargeosynchronous orbits
    • Inclinedgeosynchronous orbits
    • Quasi-zenithsatellite systems (QZSS)
    • Syb-synchronouscircular equatorial orbits
    • Geostationaryorbit
      • Parametersof the geostationary orbit
      • Visibility
      • Propagationdelay
      • Applicationsand system examples

• Perturbationsof orbits
  • Stationkeeping
    • Stationkeeping box
    • Estimationof orbit parameters

• Fundamentalsof digital communications techniques
  • Componentsof a digital communications system
  • Principlesof encryption
  • Scrambling
  • Scramblingvs. interleaving for randomization of data sequences
  • Interleaving:Block interleaver, convolutional interleaver, random interleaver
  • Digitalmodulation methods
    • Linearand non-linear digital modulation methods
    • Lineardigital modulation methods
      • QAMmodulator and demodulator
      • Pulseshaping, square-root raised-cosine pulses
      • Averagepower spectral density
      • Signalspace constellation
      • Examples:M-ary phase shift keying (M-PSK), M-ary quadrature amplitude shift keying (M-QAM)
      • M-PSKin noisy channels
      • Biterror probabilities of M-PSK and M-QAM
      • M-PSKvs. M-QAM
      • M-aryamplitude and phase shift keying (M-APSK)
      • M-APSKvs. M-QAM
      • Differentialphase shift keying (DPSK)

Errorcontrol coding (channel coding)

• Errordetecting and forward error correcting (FEC) codes
• Principleof channel coding
• Datarate, code rate, Baud rate, spectral efficiency of modulation and codingschemes
• Bandwidth-powertrade-off, bandwidth-limited vs. power-limited transmission
• Codingand modulation for transparent vs. regenerative payload
• Blockcodes and convolutional codes
• Concatenatedcodes
• Bit-interleavedcoded modulation
• Convolutionalcodes
• Lowdensity parity check (LDPC) codes, principle of message passing decoding, biterror rate performance
• Cyclicblock codes
  • Examplesfor cyclic block codes
  • Singleerrors vs. block errors, cyclic block codes for burst errors
  • Generatormatrix, generator polynomials
  • Systematicencoding and syndrome determination with shift registers
  • Cyclicredundancy check (CRC) codes

• Automaticrepeat request (ARQ)
  • Principleof ARQ
  • Stop-and-waitARQ
  • Go-back-NARQ
  • Selective-repeatARQ
• Transmissiongains and losses
  • Antennagain
    • Antennaradiation pattern
    • Maximumantenna gain, 3dB beamwidth
    • Maximumantenna gain of circular aperture
    • Maximumantenna gain of a geostationary satellite with global coverage
  • Effectiveisotropic radiated power (EIRP)
  • Powerflux density
  • Pathloss
    • Freespace loss, free space loss for geostationary satellites
    • Atmosphericloss
    • Receivedpower
  • Lossesin transmit and receive equipment
    • Feederloss
    • Depointingloss
    • Polarizationmismatch loss
  • Combinedeffect of losses
• Noise
  • Originsof noise
  • Whitenoise
  • Noisepower spectral density and noise power
  • Additivewhite Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel model
  • Antennanoise temperature
  • Earthbrightness temperature
  • Signalto noise ratios
• Atmosphericdistortions
  • Atmosphereof the earth: Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere
  •  Attenuation and depolarization due to rain,fog, rain and ice clouds, sandstorms
  • Scintillation
  • Faradayeffect
  • Multipathcontributions
• Linkbudget calculations
  • GEOclear sky uplink and downlink
  • GEOuplink and downlink under rain conditions
  • Transparentvs. regenerative payload
• Linkavailability improvement through site diversity and adaptive transmission
  • Transparentvs. regenerative payload
    • Non-linearamplifiers
      • Salehmodel, Rapp model
      • Inputand output back-off factor
    • Singlecarrier and multicarrier operation
    • Dimensioningof transmission parameters
    • Sourcesof noise: Thermal noise, interference, intermodulation products
    • Signalto noise ratio and bit error probability
    • Robustnessagainst interference and non-linear channels

• Satellitenetworks
  • Satellitenetwork reference architectures
  • Networktopologies
  • Networkconnectivity
    • Typesof network connectivity
    • On-boardconnectivity
    • Inter-satellitelinks
  • Broadcastnetworks
  • Satellite-basedinternet

• Satellitecommunications systems and standards examples
  • Therole of standards in satellite communications
  • TheDigital Video Broadcast Satellite Standard: DVB-S, DVB-S2, DVB-S2X
  • Satellitesin 3GPP mobile communications networks
  • LEOmegaconstellations: SpaceX Starlink, Kuiper, OneWeb
  • Spacedebris
  • TheGerman Heinrich Hertz mission