Satellite Antenna Pattern
In the section above the link budgets were calculated assuming the max transmit antenna gain. However, per section 6.4.1 of TR 38.811, we know that the normalized antenna gain pattern, corresponding to a typical reflector antenna with a circular aperture, is considered
where J1(x) is the Bessel function of the first kind and first order with argument x, a is the radius of the antenna's circular aperture, \(k\ = \frac{2\pi f}{c}\) is the wave number, f is the frequency of operation, c is the speed of light in a vacuum and \(\theta\) is the angle measured from the bore sight of the antenna's main beam. Note that ka equals the number of wavelengths on the circumference of the aperture and is independent of the operating frequency. The above expression provides the gain in linear scale and it needs to be converted to dB scale. The normalized gain pattern for \(a\ = \ 10\frac{c}{f}\) (aperture radius of 10 wavelengths) is shown below
Figure-1: Antenna gain pattern for aperture radius 10 wavelengths, \( a = 10\frac{c}{f} \)
Link Budget Calculations: Example 3 LEO 600 and LEO 1200
For the same two examples, shown earlier, if we compute the angular antenna gain based on the UE and satellite positions
Case 1:
The UE associates with beam 3, and the angle between the antenna boresight to the line joining the UE and the satellite is \(\theta = 3.33{^\circ}\). This computation is carried out within NetSim. Substituting
Case 2:
Since EIRP includes the antenna gains, the angular gain values obtained above needs to be added in the CNR calculations. The final link budget calculations are shown below. The changes as compared to the earlier table are shown in blue.
Simulation Parameters |
LEO 600Km |
LEO 1200Km |
|---|---|---|
Antenna Aperture (m) |
1 |
1 |
Beam Radius (Km) |
55.13 |
110.24 |
EIRP density (dBW/MHz) |
34 |
40 |
Bandwidth B |
30 |
30 |
EIRP (dBW) |
48.77 |
54.77 |
Elevation angle |
80.58 |
85.26 |
Angular Antenna Gain, \(G(\theta)\), (dB) (Calculation provided above) |
-9.31 |
-17.82 |
Slant range d (Km) |
607.48 |
1203.46 |
Free space pathloss (dB), \(PL_{FS}\) |
154.91 |
160.85 |
Shadow loss (dB), \(PL_{SM}\) |
0.39 |
0.96 |
Additional Loss(dB), \(PL_{AD}\) |
2 |
2 |
Total Pathloss, L(dB) |
157.3 |
163.81 |
Rx Antenna Gain |
0 |
0 |
Noise figure f |
7 |
7 |
Rx Antenna Temp Ta (K) |
290 |
290 |
RX equivalent antenna Temp, \(T\ \lbrack dBK\rbrack\) |
31.62 |
31.62 |
Receiver G/T |
-31.62 |
-31.62 |
Boltzmann constant \(k\ \left\lbrack \frac{dBW}{\frac{K}{Hz}} \right\rbrack\) |
-228.6 |
-228.6 |
CNR (Calculation provided below) |
4.36 |
-4.66 |
Table-1: Simulation Parameters and Link Budget Calculation for LEO Satellite Communication at 600 km and 1200 km Altitudes
Case 1:
Substituting we get
Case 2:
Substituting we get