Future satcom needs better modems, antennas and power

Although various technologies and techniques are being used to improve military satellite capabilities, armed forces will still need to rely on commercial capabilities.

Military cutbacks and the troop pullouts from Iraq and Afghanistan aren’t slowing the race to improve the military’s satellite capabilities. Engineering teams are deploying many technologies and techniques to improve satellite capabilities, while their partners on the business side look forward to continued demand from military users.

Military planners are putting more emphasis on providing warfighters in the field access to the same data that’s available to those in central locations. That’s forcing product developers to improve throughput and reliability while reducing the size and cost of equipment.

Designers are altering all types of equipment, from modems sent into orbit to antennas carried by troops and vehicles. Design teams are pressing to develop and deploy a host of new technologies that will improve efficiency. Modems are evolving rapidly.

“We need modems with higher-order coding and modulation,” said Mark Daniels, vice president of engineering and operations at Intelsat General Corp. “Another critical technology is anti-jamming. More modem manufacturers are designing anti-access area-denial technology in.”

Modem makers are also continuing to improve throughput. Adaptive in-bound channels boost data rates and improve the ability to communicate in adverse weather conditions.

“Satellite modems are beginning to employ additional modulation - 64 amplitude phase-shift keying, for example, and coding options,” said Jim Chambers, XTAR’s engineering vice president. “Adaptive coding and modulation provides a mechanism to automatically adjust the coding and modulation to either use rain-fade margin to increase the carrier data rate during clear-sky conditions, or decrease the data rate to maintain rain margin during raining conditions.”

Several technologies help make these and other enhancements possible. Semiconductors continue to track Moore’s Law, so the capabilities of processors, memories and field- programmable gate arrays doubles every couple years. But not all electronics scale as well.

“One area of design which limits the ability to drive down the size and weight of remote modems is in power supplies,” said Karl Fuchs, vice president of technology at iDirect Government Technologies. “In many ways, power-supply components are limited by physics. For example, the dimensions of the capacitor used as part of a filter are determined by the current load. There is no Moore’s Law equivalent in the power world.”

Terminals also continue to evolve, resulting in smaller packages for constrained warfighters and vehicles. Usually, smaller antennas require more power from the satellite. But some suppliers are altering that tradeoff.

“We use a smaller antenna and do a lot more focusing and tracking,” said Tim Shroyer, chief technology officer for General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies. “It’s more expensive to build the track-and-hold technology, but you can use a narrower beam from the satellite. That’s less expensive in the long run.”

Anything done to reduce antenna size is important. Antennas remain one of the largest components in many systems, challenging the drive to comms on the move and other mobile agendas.

“New antenna technologies with improved antenna gain-to-noise-temperature (G/T) performance and side lobe characteristics are enabling the design of smaller and lighter terminals,” Fuchs said.

Other vendors are focusing on systems that communicate in many formats. Multi-mode wireless devices enable users to transmit and receive critical information through a variety of architectures.

“Users can maintain voice/data connectivity regardless of the operating environment or wireless architecture availability—if a particular Satcom system is not available, the device is able to switch to an alternative source, whether it’s a satellite, cellular, or something else, to ensure command and control is maintained,” said Mark Adams, general manager of the Specialty Applications business at ITT Exelis Electronic Systems.

Changing markets

These technology changes are occurring in a marketplace that’s also undergoing a transformation. Troop drawdowns in the Middle East and budget cutbacks are occurring as a number of military satellites are coming on line.

The Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) and Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) systems are giving military users more dedicated links. However, most observers feel that military consumption of commercial satellite capabilities will continue to grow.

“Military bandwidth usage continues to go up, driven by data like UAV imagery, especially high-definition video,” Daniels said. “Even as WGS comes on line, we’re still expecting to see growth.”

Much of the military’s focus is dedicated to UHF frequencies and mobile users. These capabilities won’t significantly alter the high-bandwidth requirements of applications like video from unmanned aerial vehicles.

“MUOS will fill a significant niche for the Defense Department, but it won’t replace broadband,” Shroyer said.

Broadband satellites aren’t the only ones that will augment the military’s constellations. Iridium continues to improve its services. ITT Exelis designed the compact Iridium Short Burst Data hardware for its worldwide services, trimming size and weight by more than 50 percent.

While the DOD is using more of its own satellites, government agencies aren’t locked into the idea that they have to launch all their own communication equipment. The United States is open to having commercial suppliers handle the task of sending its systems aloft.

“We see more hosted payloads coming,” Daniels said. “We think AEHF-type payloads are a good candidate for hosted payloads.”

Additional Online Resources

General Dynamics Satcom Technologies
http://www.gdsatcom.com/

Intelsat Epic Satellite Platform
http://exnetapps.intelsat.com/network/satellite/ng/index.asp

XTAR website
http://www.xtar.com/
 
iDirect Government Technologies website
http://www.idirectgt.com/

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.