Very Wide Band Satellite Transmissions for Emergency Situations

This paper presents an emergency communication system based on a regenerative payload, added as a piggy back onboard a broadband telecommunication satellite. The emergency system does not require the reservation of specific radio resources for the user link, as the signals are spread over a very wide band and superposed to the primary system transmissions using the same frequency band. The emergency system is dimensioned so as to be invisible, from the primary system point of view. The affordable forward- and return-link performances of the emergency system are evaluated, considering man-pack transportable terminals and handset terminals.