This document briefly describes some considerations and variants for the communication architecture for the HSI mission.
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Introduction and rationale
This document is to be an introduction of work that has to be performed in order to derive a communication architecture for the HSI and SDR missions, commonly referred to as MASSIVE missions.
Also see: Frequency Allocations
Communication Architecture Overview
Consisting of:
- Spacecraft TT&C (operations, strongly linked to satellite bus)
- Downlink (and uplink) for HSI camera
- SDR experiment
Link budget
A simple link budget can be found in the ground station requirements document (OneDrive):
Gains, power levels and noise levels must be re-calculated with numbers and info from real physical equipment when we get that.
Radio channel properties and justifications for selected paramaters in the link budget can be found here: link_budget_radio_channel_properties.pdf
S-band summary
The size of the ground station antenna impacts the potential data rate, and how low elevation angle we can support.The link budget indicates that:
- 2 meter dish might support 1 Mbps (downlink) from 30 deg elevation angle.
- 3 meter dish might support 1 Mbps (downlink) from 10 deg elevation angle.
- 2 meter dish might support 100 kbps (uplink and downlink) from 10 deg elevation angle.
UHF summary
- The UHF should be able to provide up to 19.200 kbps (uplink and downlink) from 10 deg elevation angle given that antennas with > 12 dB gain is used in one end of the link. (Examples: Large sensor node, ground station).
- The UHF should be able to provide more than 1.200 kbps (uplink and downlink) from 10 deg elevation angle given that antennas with near isotropic radiation patterns are used. (Examples: Small sensor nodes, UAVs).
Space segment
Consisting of:
Satellite Operations and TTC
UHF and S-band options?
HSI camera downlink/uplink
S-band (duplex). Downlink rate: 1 Mbps. Uplink rate: 100 kbps.
Clarification needed:
Shared with satellite operations and TTC?
SDR Experiment
Likely frequency: UHF (EESS-band, 400-403 MHz)
Issues and clarifications needed:
- Antenna
- Co-excistence with satellite bus UHF TTC
- Power limits
- Scheduling limits
Ground segment
Consisting of:
New NTNU Ground Station
Overview and assesment of Ground Segment options
Specifications of Available Ground Stations
Commercial Ground Station Options
This links to:
- Own agreements with ground station network operators (KSAT, Leaf.space, others)
- Agreements and services from satellite bus provider
Ground station and operations software
This links to:
- Satellite operations tied to
- Onboard operation system
- Satellite providers operation methodology and ground (station) software
- Payload operations tied to
- Satellite providers data distrbution architecture through own/3rd party ground stations
- Direct access from our own ground station
Satellite operation software (cannot be changed by us)
The satellite bus suppliers will, depending on our needs, deliver software for operating the satellites. When their specification is known, we can derive the need for our own mission planning/scheduling software.
Own payload/mission operation software
Software for interpreting data/distribute data will be needed and should be agnostic wrt. the operations software.
Unknown User (albertda): Your part will plug in here
Potential Partners and Collaborators
Vigo
Their tool-chain. Can it be used?
Statsat
The Norwegian company Statsat are doing operations of the AIS-satellites and NORSat satellites. They now have four satellites operational, and a staff of only four-five people doing everything. They are in the process of re-writing their software based on the 5-6 years of experience they now have, in order to further simplify and stream-line operations. They are delivering an operational service for Kystverket, in addition to more ad-hoc support to research teams with other payloads on the NORSats. It could be very beneficial to try partner with them on mission software and control room ops.
Architecture Overview
List of papers/documents from current and related research
R. Birkeland, D. Palma, and A. Zolich, “Integrated smallsats and unmanned vehicles for networking in remote locations,” in Proceedings of The 68th International Astronautical Congress, 2017.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320101716_Integrated_SmallSats_and_Unmanned_Vehicles_for_Networking_in_Remote_Locations
R. Birkeland and D. Palma, “Freely-drifting small-satellite swarms for sensor networks in the Arctic,” in Proceedings of the Third International Congress on Information and Communication Technology, 2018.
paper_F_ICICT_2018.pdf
D. Palma and R. Birkeland, “Enabling the Internet of Arctic Things with Freely-Drifting Small-Satellite Swarms,” submitted to Proceedings of the IEEE Global Communications Conference, 2018.
paper_G_Globecom_2018.pdf
A. Zolich et.al, "Survey on Communication and Networks for Autonomous Marine Systems", Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, 2018
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324679900_Survey_on_Communication_and_Networks_for_Autonomous_Marine_Systems
David Palma, Artur Zolich, Yuming Jiang, Tor Arne Johansen, "Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as Data Mules: An Experimental Assessment", IEEE Access 2017
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320827638_Unmanned_Aerial_Vehicles_as_Data_Mules_An_Experimental_Assessment
Manlio Bacco et.al, "A Survey on Network Architectures and Applications for Nanosat and UAV Swarms", 9th International Conference, WiSATS 2017, pp 75-85
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-319-76571-6.pdf
Link budget and radio channel properties: link_budget_radio_channel_properties.pdf
Task list
- Type your task here, using "@" to assign to a user and "//" to select a due date
- Create a draft of communication architecture and assemble info. Unknown User (rogerbi)
- Send information and questions to NKOM about frequency allocations. Unknown User (rogerbi), Unknown User (eeide)
- Assemble draft of ground station requirements. Unknown User (rogerbi), Unknown User (garaq), Unknown User (eeide)
- Draft SDR mission con-ops, objectives mm. Unknown User (garaq)
- Define alternatives for mission operation (payload) architecture and software. Unknown User (albertda)
- Understand and specify interfaces between satellite bus providor, operator and us. All.