The proliferation of very high throughput satellite systems offering Terabit/s of system
capacities, puts a large strain on the gateway feeder link requirements. This is leading to the
exploitation and use of communication link systems using higher frequencies for data
transmission, as it offers a larger bandwidth than the traditional Ka-band channels. Even with
the exploitation of the Q/V-band (40/50 GHz), the number of required gateways may be such
that the cost of the ground segment exceeds the cost of the satellite. The use of W-band (70/80
GHz) as an additional feeder link frequency band in future very high throughput satellite
systems could significantly reduce the cost of the ground segment. This would also offer an
opportunity for the user links to migrate to higher frequencies, improving their capacity and
helping into decongesting the current occupied channels. Atmospheric impairments, including
sky noise, play a major role towards the design of future satellite systems and their mitigation
techniques as higher bands magnify these impairments.
Within this thesis, an overview of the current communication satellite systems, propagation
campaign heritage and current atmospheric impairment models is shown. Furthermore, the
design and development of a geostationary beacon payload for propagation measurements
premiering W-band is shown. Ground receivers are also significant towards the collection of
propagation measurements. The design, development and implementation of such a receiver at
Ka-band is shown. Moreover, beacon measurements at Ka- and Q-band using the Aldo
Paraboni payload are processed to reflect excess and total atmospheric fading respectively.
Concurrent recordings of the sky noise enable radiometric measurements from the
implemented receiver terminals, which can enable sky monitoring. Calibration of the noise
channel at Q-band and validation of the fading with that from a beacon power measurement is
also shown.Heriot-Watt University DTP scholarship funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
