Antenna‐beam allocation for a satellite‐fed millimeter‐wave personal communication system

Abstract

The satellite‐fed millimeter‐wave personal communication system that is described requires a satellite with a multi‐beam antenna in order to guarantee the required link availability in point‐to‐point communications between numerous widely distributed small Earth stations. The usual method of antenna beam allocation requires high beam power in the downlink, giving rise to realizability problems due to limitations on the output power of the millimeter‐wave transmitter. This paper proposes an approach to optimizing the allocation of downlink antenna beams in which the beams are assigned to service areas that are chosen with reference to population distribution, rainfall attenuation in the millimeter‐wave region, and constraints on beam power. A computer simulation based on nationwide rainfall attenuation and population distribution data indicates that the proposed approach is more effective than with the usual beam allocation method. The equipment configuration of the satellite is described.

Services, technologies, and systems at Ka band and beyond-a survey

“…The satellite antenna beam allocation technique [46] is necessary to meet the link availability requirement at every location. The system has many users with nonuniform geographic distribution.…”

Linearity degradation due to beam coupling in a multibeam mobile satellite communications system

“…Traffic itself, moreover, is characterized by variation over time. Studies are therefore being performed on ways of arranging optimal beams with an emphasis on distribution of users [7], and on methods of configuring on-board power amplifiers [810] and of achieving variable beams [11] so that power can be used efficiently and flexibly in the face of traffic variation. At the same time, antenna isolation in a multibeam system is limited and, as a result, beam coupling exists, and leaks from adjacent beams do occur.…”