A Study of the Relative Speed and Doppler Effects in Space-Based Networks

In many space network architectures, such as those intended for the military, there will be numerous types of air, ground and sea terminals communicating with each other over a complex system consisting of both geostationary earth orbit (GEO) and low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. These architectures would require highspeed communication links to be established between GEO satellite pairs, and even a GEO and a LEO satellite. With relative speeds approaching or exceeding 8 km/sec, Doppler effects can play a significant role in SONET timing and synchronization, especially when one takes into account satellite repositioning, inclinations, and other perturbations and anomalies.