WAVE PROPAGATION AND POLARIZATION

Lecture By: Kanchan Bakade

Reference Book: Satellite communication dennis roddy

Earths atmosphere

INTRODUCTION
A signal traveling between an earth station and a satellite must pass through the earths atmosphere, including the ionosphere. The signals will get distorted by certain factors like Losses by noise sources Absorption by space Attenuation Different interferences These certain impairments are summarized in table given on next slide.
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LINE OF SIGHT, GROUND WAVE, SKY WAVE

Illustration of the various propagation loss mechanisms on a typical earth-space path

The ionosphere can cause the electric vector of signals passing through it to rotate away from their original polarization direction, hence causing signal depolarization.

The absorptive effects of the atmospheric constituents cause an increase in sky noise to be observed by the receiver

the sun (a very hot microwave and millimeter wave source of incoherent energy), an increased noise contribution results which may cause the C/N to drop below the demodulator threshold.

Refractive effects (tropospheric scintillation) cause signal loss.

The ionosphere has its principal impact on signals at frequencies well below 10 GHz while the other effects noted in the figure above become increasingly strong as the 6 frequency of the signal goes above 10 GHz

ATMOSPHERIC LOSSES
Losses occur in the earths atmosphere as a result of energy absorption by the atmospheric gases. These losses are treated quite separately from those which result from adverse weather conditions, which is called as atmospheric losses. To distinguish between these, the weather-related losses are referred to as atmospheric attenuation

The absorption losses simply termed as atmospheric absorption.

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atmospheric absorption
Energy absorption by atmospheric gases, which varies with the frequency of the radio waves. Two absorption peaks are observed (for 90 elevation angle):

22.3 GHz from resonance absorption in water vapour (H2O) 60 GHz from resonance absorption in oxygen (O2)

For elevation angles() down to 10, :

Absorption loss [AA] = [AA]90 cosec

At other frequencies, the absorption is quite low

atmospheric scintillation - a fading phenomenon

Caused by difference in refractive index (which focused and defocused radio waves) Solved by Introduction of fade margin in link power-budget caculation

IONOSPHERE REGIONS

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IONOSPHERIC EFFECTS
Radio waves traveling between satellites and earth stations must pass through the ionosphere. The ionosphere has been ionized, mainly by solar radiation. The free electrons in the ionosphere are not uniformly distributed but form in layers. Clouds of electrons may travel through the ionosphere and give rise to fluctuations in the signal. The effects include scintillation, absorption, variation in the direction of arrival, propagation delay, dispersion, frequency change, and polarization rotation.
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All these effects decrease as frequency increases. Only the polarization rotation and scintillation effects are of major concern for satellite communications. Ionospheric scintillations are variations in the amplitude, phase, polarization, or angle of arrival of radio waves. Caused by irregularities in the ionosphere which changes with time. Effect of scintillations is fading of the signal. Severe fades may last up to several minutes.

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Polarization rotation
produce rotation of the polarization of a signal (Faraday rotation) When linearly polarized wave traverses in the ionosphere, free electrons in the ionosphere are sets in motion a force is experienced, which shift the polarization of the wave.

Inversely proportional to frequency squared.

not a problem for frequencies above 10 GHz.
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Atmospheric attenuation (rain is the main cause of atmospheric attenuation)

Attenuation of the signal in % 50 Example: satellite systems at 4-6 GHz

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rain absorption

30 e 20 fog absorption

10 atmospheric absorption

5 10

20

30

40

50

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elevation of the satellite

RAIN ATTENUATION
Rain attenuation is a function of rain rate.

Rain rate, Rp = the rate at which rainwater would accumulate in a rain gauge situated at the ground in the region of interest (e. g., at an earth station). The rain rate is measured in millimeters per hour.
Of interest is the percentage of time (p) that specified values are exceeded. The time percentage is usually that of a year; for example, a rain rate of 0.001 percent means that the rain rate would be exceeded for 0.001 percent of a year, or about 5.3 min during any one year. 15

The specific attenuation is b aRp dB / km

(4.2)

where a and b depend on frequency and polarization. Values for a and b are available in tabular form.(Table 4.2) Once the specific attenuation is found, the total attenuation is determined as:

A L dB
where,

(4.3)

L = effective path length of the signal through the rain.

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Because the rain density is unlikely to be uniform over the actual path length, an effective path length must be used rather than the actual (geometric) length. Figure 3 shows the geometry of the situation.

Figure 3: Path length through rain

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The geometric, or slant, path length is shown as LS. This depends on the antenna angle of elevation and the rain height hR, which is the height at which freezing occurs. Figure 4 shows curves for hR for different climatic zones.
Method 1: maritime climates Method 2: Tropical climates Method 3: continental climates

Figure: 4 Rain height as a function of earth station latitude for different climatic zones

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For small angles of elevation (El < 10), the determination of LS is complicated by earth curvature.
For El 10, a flat earth approximation may be used. From Fig. 3 it is seen that hR ho LS (4.4) sin El

The effective path length(L) is given in terms of the slant length(Ls) by

L LS r p
(4.5)

where rp is a reduction factor which is a function of the percentage time p and LG, the horizontal projection of LS.
Refer Table 4.3 for values of reduction factors, rp
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From Fig. 4.3 the horizontal projection is seen to be

LG LS cos El
(4.6)

Putting all the factors into one equation, we obtain the rain attenuation (decibels) as:

Ap aRp LS rp dB
b

(4.7)

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OTHER IMPAIRMENTS
The interfering signals contributing to noise power are uplink thermal noise and satellite intermodulation contributions. Besides these, other interefrences are
Terrestrial microwave links Cross-polarization interference Adjacent channel interference Intermodulation interference Inter-symbol interference Adjacent satellite interference

TERRESTRIAL MICROWAVE LINK (TML)

Interference between E S and terrestrial microwave system. Is function of carrier power, the carrier spectral density, frequency offset between the two carriers. In order to obtain 25dB carrier to terrestrial intereference ratio -the max interference power must be -169.5 dBW in 40KHz bandwidth of the satellite carrier.

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CROSS POLARIZATION INTERFERENCE (CPI)

Coupling of energy from one polarization state. Occurs in frequency reuse satellite communication system employing orthogonal linear or circular polarization.

ADJACENT CHANNEL INTERFERENCE (ACI)

Arise in band limited satellite channels. i.e. when some of the energy of a band limited signal falls into adjacent channels because of overlapping amplitude characteristics of a channel filters. Severe in single-carrier-per-transponder TDMA system using QPSK modulation. Termed as spectrum spreading, so to avoid this interference a back off of HPA and TWTA is needed.

INTERMODULATION INTERFERENCE (IMI)

Caused by intermodulation products generated with in satellite transponder that exhibits amplitude and phase nonlinearity. Reduced when TWTA operated with large back off and results in downlink limited system and reduced transponder capacity.

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 INTERSYMBOL INTERFERENCE (ISI) Generated within the channel itself as result of filtering and non linear characteristics of satellite TWTA. For linear characteristics, it is eliminated by the use of nyquist pulse shaping criteria. But for non-linear char., it result in degradation of carrier to noise ratio. ADJACENT SATELLITE INTERENCE (ASI) This interference comes from antenna side lobes of adjacent satellite. For this , angular seperation () between two geostationary satellites as seen by earth station is very important.
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MINIMIZATION OF THE VARIOUS EFFECTS

TML minimized by site selection and earth station shielding or by using 14/12 GHz frequency band. ACI minimized by operating HPA with appropriate o/p backoff and by appropriate filtering. IMI minimized by appropriate transponder TWTA o/p backoff or by using a single carrier per transducer such as TDMA. ISI minimized by appropriate selection of modulator and demodulator filters. ASI minimized by using a low side lobe antenna. Rain induce CPI minimized by using orthogonal linear polarizations instead of orthogonal circular polarization. Rain induced attenuation minimized by operating the satellite TWTA at or close to saturation and by using uplink power control. Antenna pointing loss minimized by using an appropriate tracking system.
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POLARIZATION OF SATELLITE SIGNALS

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ANTENNA POLARIZATION
Polarization is the property of electromagnetic waves (at the antenna feed ) that describes the direction of the transverse electric field. If Rxing antenna subsystem is not properly alligned with Rxed wave polarization; Rxr power loss occur This is called as polarization loss The polarization may be either vertical or horizontal If polarized wave correctly Rxed at the receptor it has maximized amount of collected power.
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DEPOLARIZATION
The propagation path between a satellite and earth station passes through the ionosphere and through the layers of ice crystals in the upper atmosphere and rain, all of which are capable of altering the polarization of the wave being transmitted. An orthogonal component may be generated from the transmitted polarization, an effect termed as depolarization. This can cause interference where orthogonal polarization is used to provide the isolation between signals as in the case of frequency reuse. Two measures to solve the effects of polarization interference
Cross polarization discrimination (XPD) Polarization Isolation (I)
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CROSS-POLARIZATION DISCRIMINATION
The transmitted Electric (E) field having magnitude E1before it enters the medium which causes depolarization. At the receiving the E field have two components, a copolar component having magnitude E11 and cross-polar component having magnitude E12 . Cross-Polarisation Discrimination (XPD): XPD = 20 log (E11/E12)

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Polarization Isolation
The two orthogonally polarized signals having magnitudes E1 and E2 are transmitted, after traversing a depolarized medium , the copolar and cross polar components exists for both waves. Polarization isolation (db) is I = 20 log (E11/E21)

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IONOSPHERIC DEPOLARIZATION
The free electrons in the ionosphere are not uniformly distributed but forms layers. The clouds of electrons may travel through ionosphere and give rise to fluctuations in the signal. The effect of ionosphere is to produce a rotation of the polarization of a signal, known as faraday rotation. Faraday rotation is dependent on
The length of the path in the ionosphere The effect of earth magnetic field in the ionized region The electron density in the region

Faraday rotation is inversely proportional to frequency squared, so it is not a problem for frequency above about 10GHz.
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Suppose a linearly polarized wave produce an electric field E A faraday rotation of F deg will reduce the copolarized component of E field by Eco=E cosF and the received power is propotional to square of Eco The polarization Loss (PL) in dB is
The cross-polar component Ex=E sinF Hence the XPD = 20 log (Eco/Ex) = 20 log (cotF) Max values for faraday rotation are 9 at 4GHz and 4 at 6GHz. To counter it circular polarization is used and does not affect the co-polar and cross-polar component of electric field. If linear polarization is used then polarization tracking equipment may be installed at the antenna.
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PL= 20 log (Eco/E) = 20 log (cosF)

RAIN DEPOLARIZATION
The ideal shape of the rain drop is spherical since it minimizes the energy(surface tension) required to hold the rain drops together. Fig shows the different types of rain drops

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 From figure:,

There will be a difference in the attenuation and phase shift by each of E field component. These differences are termed as differential attenuation and differential phase shift and they result in depolarization of the wave.

Depolarization from differential phase shift is more significant.

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 Here the XPD with rain is given by

A= Attenuation constant
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ICE DEPOLARIZATION
Ice layer is present at the top of a rain region and ice crystal can result in depolarization.
Producing depolarization in ice is differential phase shift with little differential attenuation. This is so because ice is good dielectric unlike water.

CCIR recommendation for taking ice depolarization into account is to add fixed decibel value to the XPD value calculated for rain. Values of 2 dB are suggested for North America and 4 to 5 dB for maritime regions. Effect of ice can be ignored for time percentages less than 0.1%

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THANK YOU

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