Charilaos Kourogiorgas, Atheras Analytics
Charilaos Kourogiorgas, Technical Director, Atheras Analytics
Atheras Analytics has developed a multi-orbit design tool that is able to optimise the design of a satellite system that consists of satellites at multiple orbits operating at Ka- and Q/V-bands.
The need for broadband internet access globally and resilient communications has led to the development of mega-constellations of Non-Geostationary (NGSO) satellites and the use of multi-orbit systems. In order to offer high throughput services reaching 1 Tbps, feeder links of NGSO constellations will need to operate at Ka- and even Q/V-bands. At these high frequencies, the atmospheric attenuation becomes a critical degrading factor of the quality of service. The dynamic nature of the multi-orbit systems demands the dimensioning of the space and ground segments with the use of advanced simulations and engineering methods.
At Atheras Analytics, we developed the multi-orbit design tool which focuses on dimensioning the ground segment of the feeder network by optimising the location and number of antennas per teleport location and evaluating the availability, throughput and coverage of the system.
Atheras Analytics’ NGSO Ground Segment Dimensioning Tool provides a complete methodology based on heuristic and Artificial Intelligence algorithms. The tool consists of multiple modules which include the orbit mechanics module for calculating satellite positions, link budget module, propagation module and the module of the system simulation.
The methodology that is used supports the design of the ground segment of multi-orbit systems by considering different propagation conditions for single or multi-frequency gateways, the service area of interest, the existence of Intersatellite links, the clustering of teleports in case of non-full terrestrial connectivity or geopolitical constraints, the existence of cloud modems on the gateways and non-spatially uniform traffic demands.
The tool is able to calculate the number of antennas per teleport required, sizing the teleports, i.e. power and antenna diameter per teleport, the availability, capacity, throughput per gateway and per satellite and for the whole system that can be achieved for different annual time percentages, the latency due to propagation conditions (including Intersatellite Links), the number of handovers on the ground and switches in space and the required bandwidth of the optical fibers on ground for the interconnection of the teleport sites.