Course syllabus

Course-PM

RRY100 Satellite communications lp2 HT24 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Space, Earth and Environment

Contact details

• examiner and lecturer: Rüdiger Haas (rudiger.haas@chalmers.se)
• discussion group supervisors: Rüdiger Haas, Karine Le Bail, Rimsky Wolfs
• guest lecturers from industry: Mats Andersson (Mumimo), Johansson (RISE)

Course purpose

This course aims at providing the students with a thorough understanding of the fundamental principles when designing global satellite systems for communication purposes.

The course gives a general introduction to satellite communication systems. The satellite communication link is presented as an alternative and complement to other communication systems, e.g. terrestrial links using radio techniques or transmission via optical fibers. Various multiple access techniques used in satellite communications such as frequency and time division multiple access (FDMA, TDMA, CDMA) will be studied. The focus of this course is on the design of a satellite communication system in terms of the power and noise budget of the link. The areas to be studied in order to reach this goal are:

• microwave transmitters and receivers
• ground station and satellite antennas
• radio wave propagation in the atmosphere, including attenuation and depolarization effect
• noise contribution from the receivers and the atmosphere
• requirements of signal to noise ratios for different modulation and coding techniques
• satellite orbits
• international regulations which introduce constraints on the satellite link design
• existing satellite communication systems are presented and possibilities for future systems
• the satellite communications industry 

Schedule

TimeEdit

Course literature

The lecture material will be made available on the canvas page of the course. For students that want to go deeper into the subject, the following books can be recommended:

• G. Maral, M. Bousquet, Z. Sun: Satellite Communication Systems: Systems, Techniques and Technology, 5th edition, Wiley & Sons, ISBN 9780470714584, 2009. (This book is also available  as e-book at Chalmers library.)
• T. Pratt, C. W. Bostian, J. Allnutt: Satellite Communications, 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 047137007X, 2003.
• E. Lutz, M. Werner, A. Jahn: Satellite Systems for Personal and Broadband Communications, Springer, ISBN 3-540-66840-3, 2000.

Course design

This course includes lectures and problem based learning. A very important part of the course is based on active discussion groups studying relevant problems for the design of satellite communication links. Several homework exercise are to be handed in, and lab exercise are to be performed.

There will be two lectures per week (4 lectures in week 1), and in total 5 discussion group meetings, as well as one day with laboratory exercises on various aspects of satellite communication. The students will be given a topic to work on during the course. The topic aims at developing and describing a complete satellite communications system. This satellite communications system is going to be documented in individual exam reports. To work on the topic, the student discuss in the smaller discussion group meeting where they meet a supervisor, too. Here they discuss their solutions to the homework exercises, work on various solutions for their problem/project, develop ideas, and in general gain knowledge from the collaboration and discussions with their fellow students and the supervisor. While this is done in the discussion groups, of up to 5 people, the examination reports are individual. This means that the students shall draw their own conclusions of the discussions and work with the other fellow students and the supervisor, and summarize their individual approach to the topic in an individual examination report. This written report needs to be handed in in the last week of this study period, and is the main examination aspect. The individual examination reports are graded. Additionally there is an oral discussion/examination for each of the discussion groups.

Changes made since the last occasion

Basic improvements following last course evaluation.

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives (after completion of the course the student should be able to):

• describe the fundamental principles of satellite communications
• discuss useful satellite orbits for various communication tasks
• discuss various antenna types useful in satellite communications
• describe radio wave signal propagation and disturbances
• describe signal to noise ratios in satellite communications
• calculate complete link budgets
• design complete satellite communications systems

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

Study plan

If the course is a joint course (Chalmers and Göteborgs Universitet) you should link to both syllabus (Chalmers and Göteborgs Universitet).

Examination form

The main examination element is the individual written examination report. This is based on a satellite communications problem that the student should use as the "red thread" for their work.

Besides this, the students are required to:

• actively take part in the compulsory discussion group meetings
• solve the home work exercises
• participate in the compulsory lab exercises at Onsala
• take part in the oral examination in groups.