Computer modelling of the radiation performance of an Earth station antenna in the presence of clutter as a planning and site shielding design tool for urban teleport sites

The increasing number of satellite communication services has resulted in a need for more satellite ground stations. While in the past Earth stations were located in remote areas, nowadays there is economic and planning pressure to place as many Earth stations as possible on a chosen site, preferably closer to the major network nodes. This has led to an unavoidable increase in the risk of interference due to the cluttered environment found in an urban location. This paper describes an efficient technique to analyse the performance of an Earth station antenna located in a clutter environment. The technique is based on the use of the power coupling theory (PCT) combined with the uniform theory of diffraction (UTD) and physical optics (PO). In addition to planning a site, the technique allows a designer to identify the most appropriate shielding design, in terms of efficiency and cost, to protect a satellite antenna from ground based interference sources. This procedure is based on the determination of the site shielding factor (SSF) as a function of the shielding configuration and the frequency. The paper describes the technique and its application to a site-shielding problem and demonstrate how a relatively small fence can provide good site shielding.