Space Communication race: to auction or allocate

Space Communication race: to auction or allocate

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Space technology

Concept :

• Majority of the parties interested in the future of space communication technology largely agree that administrative allocation of spectrum would be the right approach.
• However, there is one outlier – Reliance Jio, which has in previous communications to the government made it clear that it favours an auction for the frequency bands.

TRAI Recommendation

• Last year, TRAI had sent its recommendations on auction of spectrum in respective frequency bands including 27.5-28.5 GHz as part of 24.25-28.5 GHz band, it had said, “it is for the DoT to decide whether frequency range 27.5-28.5 GHz is to be allocated/ auctioned for IMT/5G”.

About Satellite communication :

• Satellite communication refers to any communication link that involves the use of an artificial satellite in its propagation path.
• Satellite communications play a vital role in modern life.
• There are over 2000 artificial satellites in use.
• They can be found in geostationary, Molniya, elliptical, and low Earth orbits and are used for traditional point-to-point communications, mobile applications, and the distribution of TV and radio programs.
• Satellite communications tend to use high-frequency signals.

Working of a Communication satellite- Radio Communication

• A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunications signals through a transponder.
• It basically creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on earth.
• Communications satellites are used for television, telephone, radio, internet, and military applications.
• There are currently 2,134 communications satellites in the earth’s orbit and these comprise both private and government organizations.
• Several are in geostationary orbit 22,236 miles (35,785 km) above the equator, so that the satellite appears stationary at the same point in the sky.
• The orbital period of these satellites is the same as the rotation rate of the Earth, which in turn allows the satellite dish antennas of ground stations to be aimed permanently at that spot; they do not have to move along and track it.
• Since the high frequency radio waves used for telecommunications links travel by line of sight, they get obstructed by the curve of the earth.
• Communications satellites relay the signal around the curve of the earth thus making possible communication between widely removed geographical points.
• Communications satellites use a wide range of radio and microwave frequencies.
• Signal Interference
• To avoid signal interference, international organizations have regulations stating which frequency ranges (or bands) certain organizations are permitted to use. This allocation of bands reduces the chances of signal interference.

Free Space Optical Communication (FSO)

• But recent development in FSO communications has made it a strong alternative to RF systems.
• FSO systems consist of a transmitting terminal and receiving terminal. Much like an RF system, information is encoded onto electromagnetic waves using modulation and sent to the receiving system.
• FSO links operate at a much higher frequency than RF links, generally at infrared or visible band Higher frequencies result in wider bandwidths which result in higher data rates.