Ground Segment and Earth Station Engineering for Satellite Coursework

Ground Segment and Earth Station Engineering for Satellite Communications - Coursework Example Satellite communication is a form of wireless media in which the free space is used for communication. One important advantage of such media is that a large geographical area can be covered without actually carrying out the physical wired networking. Such a communication with the help of satellites is possible when the signal is sent from ground stations to the satellites placed in geostationary orbits, which in turn sends the signal back to another ground station/s located in different city, country or region depending upon the placement and alignment of the satellite. The ground based infrastructure plays a crucial role in this transmission process. The earth station closely monitors the movement of the satellite and keeps sending the signals to it. The signal are received by the transponder and then sent back. A number of commercial and domestic applications are now dependant on the satellite communication. With emerging technologies, standards, and protocols the usage of satellit e communication in transmission, broadcasting and internet is also becoming cost effective. During this training I learned about the fundamentals of ground segment and earth station and how the satellite communication has evolved over the years from being a commercial facility with huge dish 30 m diameter antennas to small sized rooftop 0.6 m dish antenna for receiving DTH broadcasts. This has effectively made it possible even for the ordinary consumers to make use of satellite communication. Satellites can provide communication and broadcast coverage even to places like valleys, dense forests, mountains and difficult terrains where it is not possible to erect communication towers or dig channels for communication lines. All this can be provided at practically no extra costs. What we require is a receiving dish antenna with other gadgets used at other similar places. Satellites can