MIPRO 2018, May 21-25, 2018, Opatija Croatia

Link budget analysis for a proposed Cubesat

Earth observation mission
Dominik Barbarić∗ , Josip Vuković∗∗ , Dubravko Babić∗∗
∗ Ericsson Nikola Tesla d.d. Research and Development Centre, Radio Development Unit, Zagreb, Croatia
∗∗ Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, Croatia

[email protected]

Abstract—A Cubesat with payload for characterizing elec- required to obtain a certain bit error rate or signal to noise
tromagnetic and geomagnetic field is proposed. We review ratio.
the link budget requirements for this mission to enable
In section II of this paper, communication parameters
high data rate communication between a low Earth orbiting
satellite and an Earth station. Multiple frequency bands, and frequency ranges typically used by currently active
typically used in Cubesat operations, are evaluated, including Cubesat missions are presented. Adequate communication
attenuation and other link impairments along the communi- parameters are selected for this mission. A satellite orbit
cation path. We also review the communication parameters is suggested and described in section III, and most sig-
in currently deployed and active Cubesat missions.
nificant attenuation and other propagation effects causing
Index Terms—Cubesat, satellite communications, satellite
link budget, Earth observation. link impairments are presented in section IV. Commer-
cially available antennas and satellite-side transceivers for
Cubesat communication are presented in section V. All
I. I NTRODUCTION the provided information is summarized in section VI to
Cubesats are a standard form of pico-satellites sent calculate the link budget for the proposed satellite link.
into low-Earth orbit (LEO) for space exploration and
II. L INK REQUIREMENTS
Earth observation. The elementary unit of a Cubesat has
dimensions 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm, and a maximum Most of the currently active Cubesats communicate with
weight of 1.3 kg. Such a unit can be a complete Cubesat, Earth station on frequency bands that are either specif-
thus making up a 1U form-factor Cubesat, or it can be ically allocated for space communication, or correspond
stacked to form a 2U, 3U, or larger satellite. In comparison to amateur (HAM radio) satellite frequencies. Typically
to commercial satellites, Cubesats are low-cost due to used HAM radio frequencies are 145.8 MHz – 146.0
the large number of commercially available components. MHz in VHF band, 435.0 MHz – 438.0 MHz in UHF
These satellites are generally developed and built by band, and 2.400 GHz – 2.450 GHz in S-band. The use
students and faculty at universities; the primary purpose of the latter band is preferred in a 3 MHz sub-band
being engaging students in space-related activities and beginning at 2400 MHz. These S-band frequencies are
providing a comprehensive engineering project of building shared with local general permits and ISM band, while
a complex electronic system. For the university, such a the bands in VHF and UHF are exclusive to HAM radio
project will also include multidisciplinary collaboration, as use, with limitations on total radiated power and produced
other research groups (e.g. astrophysicists, geologists, etc.) interference levels. The narrow bandwidth available in
could benefit from the payload data, i.e. the observations VHF and UHF bands allows only for small datasets to
the satellite will conduct from Earth’s orbit. be transmitted, containing satellite payload information
We propose a Cubesat equipped with detectors for mon- (including scientific measurements), along with telemetry
itoring and mapping light pollution, electromagnetic noise and commands. VHF and UHF bands are often duplexed
originating from both Earth and space, and Earth’s geo- in order to increase the overall bandwidth. To achieve
magnetic field. The satellite is planned to carry multiple larger throughput, many satellite operators turn to S-band
types of novel optical detectors, optical filters, magnetome- communication. The use of 2.400 GHz – 2.450 GHz
ters and highly sensitive RF receivers. The measurements band is often limited, as the produced interference levels
are expected to produce a large amount of data, which must comply with other systems using this band. Link
would require a high throughput link to an Earth station. performance for this band is therefore akin to that of VHF
A link budget of an RF communication link is a set of and UHF bands, as seen for a transceiver in [1]. To achieve
parameters that describe a link in terms of power levels larger data throughput, a licensed 2.000 GHz – 2.300 GHz
required to establish reliable communication between the can be used. This band is allocated for space research and
transmitter and the receiver. It includes power penalties Earth exploration satellites, and is further separated into
and gains associated with antennas and phenomena that 2.025 GHz – 2.110 GHz for Earth-to-space operations, and
affect the signal to noise ratio (SNR) in a communication 2.200 GHz – 2.290 GHz for space-to-Earth operations [2].
link. The term “link budget" also conventionally refers The communication system discussed here will focus on
to the ratio of transmitter power to receiver sensitivity VHF and UHF amateur bands, and the 2.000 GHz – 2.300

133
GHz band for high data rate transfer. Link parameters
are defined by common communication protocols in VHF
and UHF bands, as further discussed in this section. For
S-band, communication parameters correspond to those
implemented by commercially available transceivers pre-
sented in subsection V-D.

A. Bandwidth
Cubesats operating in VHF and UHF bands largely use
a HAM radio derivative of the X.25 protocol: AX.25.
It features full-duplex communication when duplexed in
both VHF and UHF bands. Maximum bitrate is 9600
bit/s [3]. The available bandwidth is 20 kHz, following
restrictions listed in [4]. For S-band, a QPSK-modulated
system will be used. We will take the communication
parameters used by a commercially available transceiver,
such as the one seen in [1]. The bitrate is 3.4 Mbit/s.
Forward error correction is employed with a factor of
Fig. 1. Relative position of the satellite and the ground station at the
0.75, using a typical block code, such as Reed-Solomon. farthest communicative distance
The square root raised cosine filter with a roll-off factor
0.3 is used. The configuration assumes a Nyquist-limited
representation of the signal. The bandwidth in Hz is then if a significant pointing loss is detected on Earth station
obtained as antennas.
Rb We also define the position of a ground station to be
B= (1 + r) , (1)
SE · FEC in broader Zagreb area in Croatia. The ground station
where Rb is the bitrate, SE the ideal modulation spectral is equipped with a number of high-gain parabolic dish
efficiency; 2 bit/s/Hz in case of QPSK, FEC the forward antennas, enabling operations in VHF, UHF and S-band.
error correction factor, and r the filter roll-off factor. The The terrain configuration allows the ground station to
required bandwidth for S-band is thus B = 2.95 MHz. observe the sky at minimum elevation of 20°, at an altitude
of 120 m. In this configuration, a satellite following the
B. Signal to noise ratio suggested orbit would be visible to the Earth station
The required signal to noise ratio for achieving the around 12 times a day, in periods ranging from 8 to 12
proposed bitrate can be obtained from established com- minutes. Therefore, the satellite must be able to transmit
munication parameters and the required Eb /N0 ratio for all the prepared data in a number of bursts.
ensuring a certain bit-error rate of a particular modulation The link budget in section VI evaluates the worst-case
scheme. For BPSK, used in AX.25, and QPSK, the re- scenario, in which the satellite is visible at a minimum
quired Eb /N0 for a bit-error rate of 10−5 is 9.6 dB [5]. elevation angle from the ground station. This angle will
To calculate the required signal to noise ratio, we use the define the farthest position of the satellite relative to
relation the ground station at which communication would be
S Eb Rb achievable. Relative position of the satellite to the Earth
= · (2)
N N0 B station, when viewed at the minimum elevation angle, is
presented in Figure 1. Angle  is the minimum elevation
For VHF and UHF transmission we get S/N = 6.4 dB,
angle, here 20°, and θ is the angle between the satellite’s
and for S-band S/N = 10.2 dB.
orbital position vector (in geocentric coordinate system)
III. S ATELLITE ORBIT and the shortest path to the ground station d. Lengths
RE , ha and hs are mean Earth radius, Earth station’s
In order to estimate the effects a communication link ground level and satellite’s height, respectively. From the
between the Earth and a satellite will suffer from, one geometry in Figure 1, the station-to-satellite distance is
must first determine the location of the satellite relative to given as
the Earth station. An example low Earth orbit (LEO) is
d = −(RE + ha ) sin() + (RE + ha )2 sin2 ()

defined, based on historic launch configurations presented
1/2
in [6]. The satellite’s altitude is hs = 600 km above mean + 2RE (hs − ha ) + (h2s − h2a ) } . (3)
sea level. Orbital inclination is 52◦ . The orbital period for a
satellite in the proposed orbit is around 96 minutes1 . With For this Earth station configuration, the distance is d =
time, all objects in LEO suffer from altitude degradation, 1392 km.
having a large amount of atmospheric drag as the main In this position, the ground station is visible from the
cause. For this reason, the actual orbit must be re-evaluated satellite at an angle θ, which is found as
RE + ha
1 Orbit simulation performed with SaVi [7] sin(θ) = cos() , (4)
RE + hs

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 TABLE I high transmitter powers, and sensitive receivers must be
F REE SPACE LOSS used. These are discussed further in this paper.

Frequency LFS B. Rain attenuation

146 MHz 138.6 dB Rain penalty is frequency-dependant, and generally
446 MHz 148.3 dB
2200 MHz 162.2 dB higher for higher frequencies. Commercially used bands,
notably Ku, K and Ka bands are much more effected than
bands below 1 GHz [8]. Rain penalty is estimated by
requiring that the rain-induced attenuation will not surpass
which, for this configuration, gives θ = 59◦ . Radiation the highest value expected during a certain percentage of
cones from antennas aboard the satellite will have to time in one year. Typically, link availability during 99.99%
cover this angle to maintain communication. This is further of the year is required. ITU recommendations P.837, P.838
discussed in subsection V-C. and P.839 provide a model for evaluating rain attenuation
IV. ATTENUATIONS AND PROPAGATION EFFECTS for a given Earth station site, in the frequency range from
1 GHz to 1 THz [9], [10], [11].
The satellite link budget LB is distributed among
The specific attenuation can be presented as
the penalties, which include free-space propagation loss
LFS , rain attenuation PR , depolarization penalty, expressed γR = kRα , (9)
by cross-polarization discrimination (XPD), depointing
and is expressed in units dB/km. Here, R is the rain rate
penalty PD , and antenna gains GS [dBi] for the satellite
in mm/h that is exceeded for 0.01% of time in one year
antenna and GE [dBi] for the Earth station antenna. An-
at Earth station’s geographical area. The value is obtained
tenna gain is defined as the ratio of power density radiated
from maps in [9], by finding the location of the Earth
in the maximum radiation direction to the average power
communication site. Coefficients k and α are frequency-
density on a sphere containing the antenna. Comprising
and polarization-dependant, and are provided by tables in
all above, and other possible penalties under a single
[10]. They can also be well approximated by expressions
coefficient PP , the link budget can be expressed as
given in [8] for frequency ranges 1 GHz – 40 GHz. Note
LB = Ptx + GS + GE − LFS − PP − PM − N (5) that, for frequencies above 4 GHz, γR is often obtained
by use of nomograms published in [12].
where Ptx is the transmitted power, PM the link margin; Rain attenuation is manifested through only a part of
the amount of power left for random fluctuation in attenu- the communication path. The effective rain path length is
ation or degradation of the link, and N the overall noise on calculated from expressions found in [11], and corrected
the receiver. Link margin should always be positive and by the sine of the ground station’s antenna elevation angle.
preferably greater than 6 dB. The following subsections For a ground station located in Croatia, R is equal to 42
discuss the main penalties and antenna gains relevant to mm/h. The rain attenuation is calculated for S-band com-
satellite communications. The link budget is generally munication around 2.2 GHz. Given an antenna elevation
computed for the worst-case situation. of 120 m above mean sea level, and the mean annual 0
After the link budget is met for the defined commu- °C isotherm height of 3.31 km, the rain-attenuated path is
nication parameters, received power must be verified to 9.82 km in length. The total rain attenuation is
be above the receiver sensitivity, which is defined as the
received power, expressed in dBm, at which the receiver PR = 0.093 dB (10)
can detect a signal of a given symbol rate with specified Therefore, rain attenuation at such low frequencies is
bit-error rate. The total received power is expressed as negligible. For even lower frequencies in VHF and UHF
Prx = Ptx + GS + GE − LFS − PP (6) bands, the rain attenuation is even less significant.

A. Free space propagation C. Polarization effects

Major attenuation in satellite communications is caused Cubesats can be equipped with either linearly or cir-
by free-space propagation. At a distance d from the cularly polarized antennas. In case of linear polarization,
transmitter, the power density S(d) drops to maintaining polarization across the communication path is
required to receive the signal. Major problems in tracking
Ptx the satellite antennas’ polarization arise due to ionospheric
S(d) = . (7)
4πd2 effects [13], [14], notably Faraday rotation. This effect
Relating the effective antenna area to the wavelength λ, causes a linearly polarized wave to be rotated in the
free space loss LFS can be expressed as ionosphere, due to interaction with Earth’s magnetic field.
 2 The effect is significant at frequencies lower than 2 GHz,
4πd
LFS = . (8) and can be approximated as
λ
∆τ ≈ 2 · 1017 /f 2 [rad]. (11)
For the frequencies of interest, free space loss for the
farthest distance d = 1392 km is presented in Table I. In The coefficient in front of the frequency-dependent term
order to mitigate free space loss, highly directive antennas, depends on the current state of ionosphere above Earth

135
station’s area. For frequencies around S-band, the total TABLE II
polarization rotation will be about 1°. For VHF and P ERFORMANCE OF SATELLITE - SIDE ANTENNAS
UHF, this turns into 320°, and 34°, respectively. This
amount of rotation in VHF and UHF bands, along with Frequency GS θ3dB
146 MHz 2.2 dBi 80◦
the uncertainty of ionospheric model, makes polarization 446 MHz 2.2 dBi 80◦
tracking difficult. 2200 MHz 8.3 dBi 71◦
Depolarization is included in the link budget by XPD.
Linearly polarized antennas may be used at Earth station
if the current state of signal polarization can be well TABLE III
P ERFORMANCE OF A 5 M PARABOLIC DISH ANTENNA
estimated. However, due to the very short visibility period
of a satellite, polarization must be quickly measured, Frequency GE θ3dB
and the receiving antenna adjusted, so as not to miss 146 MHz 14.7 dBi 28.8°
the satellite or end up with a large pointing error. A 446 MHz 24.3 dBi 9.4°
common approach to solving the polarization uncertainty 2200 MHz 38.2 dBi 1.9°
is using circularly polarized antennas at Earth station, thus
eliminating the requirement for knowing the current state
of linear polarization. This introduces a constant XPD of sufficient to meet the constraints set in section III. Antenna
3 dB. performance is reviewed in Table II. If the monopole
If a satellite uses circularly polarized antennas, this loss antenna is used, circular polarization can not be achieved.
is eliminated, as Faraday rotation will have no effect on All the other referenced antenna systems are capable of
signal propagation. This approach also eliminates the satel- circular polarization. Therefore, no XPD is considered
lite attitude uncertainty that existed with earlier Cubesats further.
that were not equipped with attitude control systems. The
satellite system reviewed here will use circularly polarized B. Earth-side antennas
antennas. Satellites are predominantly communicated with using
parabolic antennas, save for mobile applications such as
D. Ionospheric scintillation
basic navigation, hand-held communications, or portable
For waves below 3 GHz, irregularities in the received radios. Such applications use a dense constellation of
amplitude, phase, polarization, and direction of arrival are LEO satellites, or one-way transmission from satellites
caused by rapid fluctuations in ionization density [14]. The in medium Earth orbit (MEO), in conjunction with lower
effect is more intensely observed in equatorial and polar frequency bands, which enables simpler antennas to be
regions. For latitudes between 20◦ and 60◦ , the effect is used at ground terminals. As power levels from Cubesats
considered negligible [15]. Therefore, for an Earth station are limited by available on-board power, interference lev-
in Croatia, this penalty can be ignored. els, or regulations, high gain antennas, such as those with
E. Doppler shift parabolic reflectors, are a logical choice for the Earth side
of the communication link. Fly-over times of Cubesats
The satellite’s high orbital velocity is the cause for are relatively short, so the antenna should be motorized
the Doppler shift of the carrier frequency. In large com- and light enough to ensure tracking, and enable pointing
munication satellites, compensation is implemented on corrections. The formula for parabolic antenna gain is
the satellite itself. With Cubesats, correction is normally given as
performed on the ground station, given a corrected orbital  2  2
model. Therefore, no penalty from this effect is expected. 4π πD
GE = Aeff =η , (12)
V. A NTENNAS AND TRANSCEIVERS λ2 λ
A. Satellite-side antennas where Aeff is the effective area of the antenna, η parabolic
dish efficiency, and D the aperture diameter. Typical
Cubesats are typically equipped with commercially
efficiency is η = 50% [19]. The half power beamwidth
available antennas for space applications. For S-band
of such an antenna is given as
communication, patch antennas are used, such as the one
found in [16]. This antenna has a gain of up to 8.3 dBi. λ
θ3dB = 70◦ . (13)
The half power beam width θ3dB is 71°, which meets the D
constraints set in section III. Patch antennas for Cubesat We intend to use a parabolic dish antenna, 5 m in
applications are designed to be integrated on one of the diameter, for all frequency bands of interest. This will give
faces of the satellite. For VHF and UHF, this is not the antenna parameters as shown in table III.
case, as patch antennas for these frequency bands would
be too large. Instead, monopole or dipole antennas are C. Depointing penalty
used, such as those found in [17], [18]. These antennas are Attitude control system aboard the satellite maintains
extended out of the cubical structure of the satellite after the attitude so that the satellite’s payload-carrying side
launch. Their gain is presumed to be 0 dBd. According to always faces the Earth. As the satellite moves away from
datasheets [17], [18], their half power beam width θ3dB is the position directly above the ground station, antenna

136
gain in the direction of the ground station deteriorates. In TABLE IV
the position farthest from the ground station, as described N OISE LEVELS
in section III, the ground station is illuminated by edges
At the Earth station
of satellite antenna’s main lobe. According to farfield
Frequency B Tnoise N
characteristics found in datasheets [17], [16], this will 146 MHz 20 kHz 2000 K -122.6 dBm
induce a depointing penalty, relative to the maximum 446 MHz 20 kHz 200 K -132.6 dBm
antenna gain, of PD = 6 dB for VHF and UHF bands, 2200 MHz 3.4 MHz 130 K -112.8 dBm
On the satellite
and PD = 9 dB for S-band. Frequency B Tnoise N
A depointing loss is also considered for Earth-side 146 MHz 20 kHz 290 K -131.0 dBm
antennas. For parabolic antennas, it can be calculated 446 MHz 20 kHz 290 K -131.0 dBm
by estimating the main antenna lobe profile as a square 2200 MHz 3.4 MHz 290 K -109.3 dBm
function, yielding
 2
θ with k being the Boltzmann constant, T the receiver
PD (θ) = 12 [dB]. (14)
θ3dB system equivalent noise temperature, and B the used
Given antenna’s beamwidth presented in table III, the bandwidth, as calculated in section II.
depointing penalty is discarded for VHF and UHF bands. It is presumed that the antenna will be immediately
For the S-band, it is presumed that the tracking mechanism followed by a low noise amplifier, which will eliminate
will provide mechanical precision of at least 1°. Therefore, most of the noise factor of the receiver. The antenna
we include a 1.3 dB penalty for S-band, as seen in (14). noise temperature will now make the key contribution to
overall system noise. A standard Earth surface temperature
D. Transceivers of 290 K can be taken as the noise temperature for the
satellite-side of the communication system, as its antenna
A number of commercially available VHF, UHF and
is always viewing the Earth [21]. For the ground station,
S-band transceivers for Cubesats are reviewed here [20],
the noise temperature is read from diagrams in [21] to be
[1]. The simplicity of obtaining a license makes the low
2000 K for VHF band, 100 K for UHF band, and 130 K
bitrate amateur-allocated VHF and UHF bands a popular
for S-band. These values give represent valid orders-of-
choice for Cubesats. All afore referenced transceivers for
magnitude for noise temperatures. However, for UHF and
VHF and UHF bands use the AX.25 protocol, with the
S-band we increase the equivalent temperature on Earth-
highest bit rate of 9600 bit/s, and BPSK, GMSK, or
side antennas due to the noise picked up in spillover areas
FSK modulation. In the licensed 2200 MHz – 2300 MHz
of the parabola’s radiating element. This noise is expected
band, transceivers can achieve up to 3.4 Mbit/s, as is
not to exceed 100 K. As the antenna will not be pointing
the case with the one presented in [1]. Communication
directly towards the Sun or the Moon, the noise from these
parameters of this transceiver will be considered for S-
celestial objects is not included.
band calculation.
Finally, noise levels can be calculated. They are pre-
All the considered transmitters provide a maximum sented in Table IV. To calculate the received signal power,
transmit power of 1 W. Typical values used in Cubesat we start with the well-known Friis formula
missions are between 0.5 W and 2 W. Transmit power is  2
limited by the available power on the satellite, especially if Prx λ
= GE GS . (16)
a satellite is expected to run while in seclusion to sunlight; Ptx 4πd
i.e. if it runs on batteries for a part of time. The sensitivity All the penalties, and the link margin of 6 dB, can be
of these receivers must be high in order to receive signal included as additional terms of the formula.
from the Earth ground station. The transceivers in [1] Finally, the link budget can be presented in Table V.
feature a -104 dBm sensitivity, while the one in [20] as
high as -121 dBm. VII. D ISCUSSION
For the ground station, power levels of up to 100 W The presented link budget is calculated for the worst-
can be utilized, as this is the maximum allowed power case satellite position relative to the ground station. The
from the transmitter to the transmitting antenna system, quality of the Earth-to-satellite link is far superior to that
as defined by [4] for HAM radio bands. The same power of the link in reverse direction. The reason for this is that
level is presumed to be available in the licensed S-band. the ground station can provide a much larger transmit
power level, constrained only by local regulations. The
VI. L INK BUDGET satellite, on the other hand, can only produce a low-level
The link budget considers signal and noise levels on ei- signal due to power consumption constraints. The received
ther ends of the communication system. Having presented signal is large enough on both ends of the communication
all the system components in previous sections, we can links, and it meets the sensitivity constraints set by the
now make an estimate of the overall SNR on the link. presented satellite-side transceivers, and typical ground
To calculate the noise level, we use station transceivers.
Several major effects, usually observed in satellite links,
N = kT B , (15) that were presented here were shown to be of little

137
 TABLE V orbit is suggested and spatial relations between the Earth
L INK BUDGET station and the satellite are discussed. Major propagation
effects observed in satellite communication links are pre-
Frequency 146 MHz 446 MHz 2200 MHz sented and evaluated for given frequency bands and system
Bandwidth 20 kHz 20 kHz 2.95 MHz
Channel configuration. Earth station and satellite system parameters
Free space loss -138.6 dB -148.3 dB -162.2 dB are defined.
Depointing loss 6 dB 6 dB 10 dB Finally, the link budget is calculated for VHF, UHF and
Earth-to-satellite
TX power 100 W 100 W 100 W
licensed 2.2 GHz bands. The link budget is met, proving
RX level -77.8 dBm -77.9 dBm -76.7 dBm that the suggested communication parameters are valid.
Noise level -131.0 dBm -131.0 dBm -109.3 dBm
SNR 53.2 dB 53.1 dB 32.6 dB ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Link budget 40.8 dB 40.7 dB 16.4 dB This paper was supported by Ericsson Nikola Tesla d.d.
Satellite-to-Earth
TX power 1W 1W 1W and University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering
RX level -97.7 dBm -97.8 dBm -95.7 dBm and Computing under the project “Emerging Wireless and
Noise level -122.6 dBm -132.6 dBm -112.8 dBm Information Technologies for 5G Radio Access Networks”
SNR 24.9 dB 34.8 dB 17.1 dB
Link budget 12.5 dB 22.4 dB 0.9 dB
(EWITA).
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can be transmitted. Therefore, a licensed 2.2 GHz band, American Radio Relay League, Inc., 2009.
enabling high bit rate transmission, is shown to be of [20] UHF Transceiver Type II User Manual, Endurosat. [Online].
Available: https://endurosat-mxa7y13fkfokttd.netdna-ssl.com/
interest. Link parameters are defined, based on current modules-datasheets/UHF%20type_II_User_Manual_Rev_1.pdf
practice in Cubesat operator community, as well as the [21] ITU Recommendation P.372-13: Radio noise, International
requirement for high data rate communication. A satellite Telecommunication Union.

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