Distributed satellite communications system design : first-order interactions between system and network architectures

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2005.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Underwood, Jennifer E. (Jennifer Elizabeth)
Other Authors: Dorothy Poppe and Olivier de Weck.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2006
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32455
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author Underwood, Jennifer E. (Jennifer Elizabeth)
author2 Dorothy Poppe and Olivier de Weck.
author_facet Dorothy Poppe and Olivier de Weck.
Underwood, Jennifer E. (Jennifer Elizabeth)
author_sort Underwood, Jennifer E. (Jennifer Elizabeth)
collection MIT
description Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2005.
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spelling mit-1721.1/324552019-04-12T21:48:33Z Distributed satellite communications system design : first-order interactions between system and network architectures Underwood, Jennifer E. (Jennifer Elizabeth) Dorothy Poppe and Olivier de Weck. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Aeronautics and Astronautics. Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2005. Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-165). Humanity now exists in the midst of the fast-moving Information Age, a period of history characterized by fast travel and even faster information transfer. As data becomes seemingly more valuable than physical possessions, the introduction of exciting applications for communications services becomes ever more critical for the success - and in some cases, survival - of businesses and even nations. While the majority of these innovations have occurred over cable and fiber, a number of the most socially significant have occurred due to the introduction of satellites. Terrestrial fiber and cable systems have a number of advantages, but the extent of their reach and the cost of installation - in terms of both capital and time - favor industrialized nations over more remote and underdeveloped communities. Even as satellites offer the only real chance for ultimate communications ubiquity and true global unity, there remains a significant cost-benefit barrier. Few commercial satellite systems have succeeded economically without first falling victim to bankruptcy. The upfront capital required to implement a satellite communications system is staggering, and historically satellite companies have failed to adequately match capacity and service options to the current and actual future demand. The design process itself is an inherent limiting factor to the achievable cost and performance of a system. (cont.) Traditionally, the first step toward designing satellite communication systems - as well as terrestrial, sensor web, and ad hoc networks - has been to specify the system topology (e.g., the orbits of the satellites and the locations of the ground stations) based on the desired market and then to design the network protocols to make the most of the available resources. Such a sequential process assumes that the design of the network architecture (e.g., protocols, packet structure, etc) does not drive the design of the system architecture (e.g., constellation topology, spacecraft design, etc). This thesis will show that in the case of Ka-band distributed satellite communication systems this fundamental assumption is not valid, and can have a significant impact on the success (cost, capacity, customer satisfaction) of the resulting satellite communication system. Furthermore, this thesis will show that how a designer values performance during the design and decision process can have a substantial impact on the quality of the design path taken through the trade space of possible joint architectures. by Jennifer E. Underwood. S.M. 2006-03-29T18:46:08Z 2006-03-29T18:46:08Z 2005 2005 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32455 61751324 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 165 p. 10868422 bytes 10877880 bytes application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Underwood, Jennifer E. (Jennifer Elizabeth)
Distributed satellite communications system design : first-order interactions between system and network architectures
title Distributed satellite communications system design : first-order interactions between system and network architectures
title_full Distributed satellite communications system design : first-order interactions between system and network architectures
title_fullStr Distributed satellite communications system design : first-order interactions between system and network architectures
title_full_unstemmed Distributed satellite communications system design : first-order interactions between system and network architectures
title_short Distributed satellite communications system design : first-order interactions between system and network architectures
title_sort distributed satellite communications system design first order interactions between system and network architectures
topic Aeronautics and Astronautics.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32455
work_keys_str_mv AT underwoodjenniferejenniferelizabeth distributedsatellitecommunicationssystemdesignfirstorderinteractionsbetweensystemandnetworkarchitectures