Frequency addressable beams for land mobile communications

Abstract

Satellites used for mobile communications need to serve large numbers of small, low cost terminals. The most important parameters affecting the capacity of such systems are the satellite equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) and gain to noise temperature ratio (G/T) and available bandwidth. Satellites using frequency addressed beams provide high EIRP and G/T with high-gain antenna beams that also permit frequency reuse over the composite coverage area. Frequency addressing is easy to implement and compatible with low-cost terminals and offers higher capacity than alternative approaches.