Transmission modeling of military and commercial satellite systems

Transmission planning for military and commercial satellite communications systems has traditionally followed separate (but parallel) paths and led to the development of distinct sets of tools which can handle either only military satellite systems or only commercial satellite systems. With the need to operate DoD communications networks on both military and commercial satellites a unified transmission planning model is required which can model both types of satellite systems in a common framework. This paper proposes a unified approach to transmission planning for military and commercial satellite systems, and discusses both the common requirements for such a transmission planning model, and those requirements specific to the structure and operation of military satellites such as the use of saturated transponders, null-forming multi-beam antennas, special waveform modulation techniques, jamming threats, etc., which need to be treated differently from their commercial counterparts. Software models are proposed for some of the key requirements, and issues related to their implementation are discussed. The paper also describes the capabilities of existing software which can be used for transmission planning on commercial satellites, and how it can be augmented to function in the military satellite communications environment.