Regarding testing of antenna and communication system

[Guruditya Sinha]

Hi,
I am working on a communications system, and I wanted to confirm the tests to be performed on it. I am listing down some high-level indicatives for the probable tests. It would be great if anyone could tell if there are any new tests that are to be added to this list. Note that these tests are detailed for a satellite system so there is a mentioning of ground station testing. Thus qualification tests are also listed in it.

 Antenna simulations on suitable software
 Antenna development in anechoic chamber (inclusive of Antenna Gain test)
 Telecommand/telemetry testing for packet reception/transmission
 Electromagnetic Interference checks for Integration level design verification
 Ground Station testing and verification
 Thermal Testing for Power Amplifier

Regards
GS

 

[jiripolivka]

Hi,
I am working on a communications system, and I wanted to confirm the tests to be performed on it. I am listing down some high-level indicatives for the probable tests. It would be great if anyone could tell if there are any new tests that are to be added to this list. Note that these tests are detailed for a satellite system so there is a mentioning of ground station testing. Thus qualification tests are also listed in it.

 Antenna simulations on suitable software
 Antenna development in anechoic chamber (inclusive of Antenna Gain test)
 Telecommand/telemetry testing for packet reception/transmission
 Electromagnetic Interference checks for Integration level design verification
 Ground Station testing and verification
 Thermal Testing for Power Amplifier

Regards
GS

Your table is good. In a real communication system, the channel is typically designed for a defined modulation type and spectrum. THen the complete satellite plus uplink and downlink sections in earth station(s) must be tested to make sure they all will meet the specifications.

The interference design and testing must include not only the earth-station and satellite hardware (antennas being particularly important) , but the spatial coordination with other satellite systems in their orbit(s) is important and difficult.

The thermal testing is important not only for the power amplifier (there is one in uplink and one aboard the satellite), also other system parts are temperature sensitive.

Power supply as well as its backup is essential in emergency situations, and its testing must be done for any possible situation.

All components in a complex satellite system must meet the availability, therefore their individual MTTF as well as system MTTF must be adjusted for the best reliability (temperature is very important here).

The availability of a satellite communication system is highly dependent on microwave propagation in precipitations. A thorough analysis must precede system design, and possible diversity introduced to meet the availability. This can include one or more spare diversity earth station(s) if rain can stop the communication for more than several seconds. People are attracted in the theoretical high channel capacity at >10 GHz but forget that it can only function in ideal weather. Even costly addition of larger antennas will not work when needed.