By Andrew Aroh

For satellite communications, we need tools and resources to enable us maximize capacity utilization, optimize system design, and reduce costs. Such tools and resources must be useful in all phases of communications, satellite development, and operations including:

• Requirements specification
• Long-range planning
• Satellite network design
• Operational transmission planning
• Capacity management
• Troubleshooting

Features of a typical packaged tools and resources:

• Accurately models thermal noise, adjacent carriers and co-channel interference, inter-modulation noise and propagation impairments
• Recently updated to include very comprehensive modeling of adjacent satellite interference (ASI) on both the uplink (uplink ASI) and downlink (downlink ASI).
• Uses the latest nonlinear amplifier model. Computes complex nonlinear effects.
• Uses the COMSAT PAP, ITU, and crane Two Component rain models: and includes databases of digitalized rain zone maps and rainfall statistics.
• Provides drag-and-drop carrier frequency assignment.
• Interfaces with commercial Communication System Monitoring (CSM) systems.
• Interfaces with the Satellite System Database (SSDB)

Additional Features:

• Plans saved in XML standard file format and can be viewed/modified by publicly available tools.
• Ability to retrieve and save plans from/to the database.
• Ability to model entire satellite and plan a large number of links simultaneously.
• Models extensively verified in the laboratory, field test, and customer-site measurements.
• Extremely fast computation utilizing sophisticated algorithms
• Can be used to perform sophisticated trade-off analyses, complex system studies, and optimal design of satellite-based networks.
• Approved by the Government as benchmark for validating other systems.

SATELLITE SYSTEM DATABASE CONTAINS:

• Space segment information:

Detailed satellite communications payload information for multiple satellite fleets:

• Satellite orbital parameters and orientation
• Antennas and antenna coverage patterns
• Amplifier and non-linear characteristics
• Possible and actual connectivity
• Possible and actual gain settings
• Frequency layout and transponder characteristics etc.
• Ground segment information:
• Thousands of earth stations with their transmit and receive characteristics and rainfall statistics.
• Modem characteristics for several different manufacturers.
• Plan information:

Save and retrieve plans to enable work-sharing between planners, and to provide plan information to other systems.

• MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
• Windows 95/98/ NT 4.0/2000
• 50MB free hard drive space
• 300-MHz Pentium 2
• SVGA video adapter
• 128 MB RAM
• 1024 x 768 res./256 colors
• CD-ROM Drive
• 8 MB video RAM
• BENEFITS OF TOOLS & RESOURCES PACKAGE:
• Reduce costs by maximizing space-segment capacity utilization
• Perform trade-off analyses to minimize ground-segment infrastructure costs
• Design complex satellite-based networks with ease
• Manage and efficiently plan large scenarios with hundreds or thousands of links in multiple transponders.
• Achieve orders-of-magnitude increase in productivity of satellite planners
• Track power and bandwidth utilization, and discover ‘’hidden’’ ‘’capacity’’
• Troubleshoot operational plans and easily identify complex problems
• Evaluate future satellite systems and assess long-term capacity requirements.

Plan with confidence using the most accurate, laboratory and field verified models that serve as benchmarks for validating other planning systems.

REPORTS & PLOTS:

• Accurately models and analyzes impairments for C-band, Ku-band, X-band and Ka-band transponders, and automatically optimize carrier power to meet user-specified quality of service, both in clear weather and rain-degraded conditions.
• Extensive set of reports and plots in ASCII, word, Excel, and PDF
• Saw tooth transmission plan plots
• Noise, margin, and power summary reports
• Rain analysis, predicted link availability, and required rain margins
• Intermediation power spectral density plots and reports
• Carrier power spectrum plots
• Receive co-pol and cross-pol power spectra at earth stations
• Carrier power spectrum plots

SUMMARY

Satellite Tools and Resources Include:

• The Antenna Coverage Program (ACP)
• The Link Budget Calculator (Link)
• The Propagation Analysis Program (PAP)
• The Coverage Analysis Program (CAP)
• Custom reports (easily generated from the SSDB)
• These tools are combined with the Satellite System Database (SSDB)-a comprehensive relational database of satellite system parameters-and powerful calculators for pattern advantage analysis, beacon calculations, and general satellite conversion calculations.
• Utilities to compute pointing angles, beta factors, and look angles are also included.

Andrew Aroh is President SSPI Nigeria