Application of phased antenna array with digital beamforming to establish the internal radio network of the distributed satellite

Abstract

The possibility of application of the Phased Antenna Array with Digital Beamforming (PAA-DB) to establish the Internal Radio Network (IRN) of the Distributed Satellite (DS) is shown, which allows increasing the efficiency of the IRN by using the spatial separation of information flows between Core and Edge Satellites. The issues considered are related to choosing the Reference Coordinate System, where it is proposed to measure the relative motion of the satellite of the DS. An Orbital Coordinate System of the Core Satellite is proposed as the Reference Coordinate System. It is shown how the information about the coordinates of the Edge Satellites in the Orbital Coordinate System of the Core Satellite enables one to obtain information about the coordinates of the Edge Satellites in the Orbital Coordinate System by recalculation method. It is shown that using modified 3GPP protocols enables the measurement of the inclined ranging between the Core and Edge satellites. To measure the Edge Satellites’angular coordinates inside the Orbital Coordinate System of the Core Satellite, it is proposed to use the Phased Antenna Array with Digital Beamforming of the Core Satellite in combination with a modified monopulse radio direction-finding method. The modified monopulse method is based on predicting the received signal level of the Edge Satellite and matching it with the spatial frequency real response of the Phased Antenna Array. The difference between the predicted value and assessed spatial frequency enables us to estimate the angle of deviation of the emitter, the edge satellite, from the fixed beam orientation direction of the Phased Antenna Array. To determine the angular coordinates of the Edge Satellite, the values of several spatial frequencies of the Phased Antenna Array are used, which correspond to the level of the received signal in adjacent fixed ones.