Satellite Communication and Bangladesh be Benefited by the Bangabandhu Satellite

Advantages and disadvantages of Satellite Communication:  

This page covers advantages and disadvantages of Satellite Communication. It mentions Satellite Communication advantages and Satellite Communication disadvantages.
As we know satellite communication uses satellite placed above earth for communication by VSATs placed on the earth. It is also used for TV broadcasting. Satellites uses microwave frequencies for communication with each other using inter-satellite links and with earth stations or VSATs. There are different types of satellite based on applications and their orbits.


The figure-1 depicts typical satellite satellite. As shown it consists of space segment, ground segment and TT&C (Tracking Telemetry & command station OR satellite control center).
The duplexing techniques such as FDD/TDD and multiple access techniques such as FDMA/TDMA/CDMA are used to separate signals. This will help in efficient usage of satellite transponder bandwidth. VSAT basics and satellite basics for more information.

Advantages of Satellite Communication

Following are the advantages of Satellite Communication:
➨It is used for mobile and wireless communication applications independent of location.
➨It covers wide area of the earth hence entire country or region can be covered with just one satellite.
➨It provides wider bandwidth based on SCPC or MCPC allocation types.
➨It co-exists with terrestrial microwave line of sight communication.
➨It is easy to install and manage the ground station sites.
➨It does not incur much of the costs per VSAT site.
➨It is used for voice, data, video and any other information transmission. Satellite system can be interfaced with internet infrastructure to obtain internet service. It is also used for GPS applications in various mobile devices for location determination.
➨It is easy to obtain service from one single provider and uniform service is available.
➨It has small fading margin on the order of about 3dB.
➨It is used in wide variety of applications which include weather forecasting, radio/TV signal broadcasting, gathering intelligence in military, navigation of ships and aircrafts, global mobile communication, connecting remote areas etc.
➨LEO and MEO satellite types have lower propagation delay and lower losses compare to GEO satellite. This will help them to be used for global coverage.

Disadvantages of Satellite Communication

Following are the disadvantages of Satellite Communication:
➨Satellite manufacturing requires more time. Moreover satellite design and development requires higher cost.
➨Satellite once launched, requires to be monitored and controlled on regular periods so that it remains in the orbit.
➨Satellite has life which is about 12-15 years. Due to this fact, another launch has to be planned before it becomes un-operational.
➨Redundant components are used in the network design. This incur more cost in the installation phase.
➨In the case of LEO/MEO, large number of satellites are needed to cover radius of earth. Moreover satellite visibility from earth is for very short duration which requires fast satellite to satellite handover. This makes system very complex.
Also refer advantages and disadvantages of LEO >>, MEO >> and GEO >> satellite orbits.

 Bangabandhu Communication satellite is the first satellite of Bangladesh which will be launched using vehicle SpaceX & Falcon-9 from the Cape Canaveral launch pad on 16th December 2017 & it will start its commercial operation from March 2018.

This satellite will bring enormous development & uninterrupted telecommunication System in Bangladesh especially in television, telephone & Internet service which Bangladesh usually purchase from overseas.

At present Bangladesh is spending annually more than $14 million on satellite rent to ensure connectivity of television, radio, telephone and Internet. So this satellite will make Bangladesh self-contained & Bangladesh will also earn some foreign currency by broadcasting service.

India & Pakistan have their own satellites, Sri-Lanka is in queue. So Bangladesh rent service to Nepal, Myanmar or Bhutan & may earn more than $50 million per year.

Finally communication system of Bangladesh will get new progression of development. This satellite will give Bangladesh a long term service to a large scalability, global availability, reliability, versatility & super performance.

Some sectors like telemedicine, e-learning, e-researchs, video conference, defence & disaster management system will be improved for this satellite in Bangladesh.