O3b plans to build a constellation network of medium earth orbit (MEO) communications satellites that will provide satellite communications backbones with fiberoptic transmission speed using Ka-beam antenna technology. The constellation is
composed of 20 MEO satellites. The final launch took place in April 2019 [13]. The
fleet of satellites orbits the earth in a circular, equatorial orbit at an altitude of 8063 km.
It covers all places between the north and south latitudes of 45° and can provide certain
services in the range of 45° to 62° in the south and north latitudes. Each satellite is
equipped with 12 fully steerable Ka-band antenna. Ten beams are for user terminals,
and two beams are for gateway connections. Each antenna provides a data throughput
of 1.25 GBit/s, 600 MBit/s for up and downlink resulting in a total capacity of
12.5 GBit/s per satellite [14].
In 2021, seven next-generation MEO satellites will be added to the O3b fleets,
forming O3b mPOWER, the new satellite-based system. With the addition of these
seven next-generation satellites, the O3b mPOWER system will have more than 30,000
fully shapeable and steerable beam, providing coverage of ±50° latitude for nearly 400
million km
2 [15].
2.6 Kuiper
Amazon confirmed in April 2019 that it has a plan to launch as many as 3236 LEO
satellites to cover regions between 56° north and 56° south latitudes where approximately 95% of the world’s population lives. The name of the project, “Kuiper”, comes
from a region of the Solar System, where there are many fragments of protoplanetary
disks that surround the Sun, known as the Kuiper Belt.
“Project Kuiper” is made up of LEO satellites rounding the earth at three different
altitudes, 784 satellites orbiting at an altitude of 590 km, 1296 satellites orbiting at an
altitude of 610 km, and 1156 satellites at an altitude of 630 km. At present, Project
Kuiper is still in the initial stage and has just submitted an application to the FCC. The
satellite launching will take another few years [16].
3 Development Prospect
1. A wide variety of design options will be explored
Commercial communication satellite systems designed by different companies have
different features. Some satellite systems such as Iridium-NEXT and Starlink provide
global coverage, while other satellite systems such as O3b mainly cover the middle and
low latitudes, thus reducing the satellite number and the system costs. Some satellites
have fixed attitude antennas, and others can dynamically adjust the antenna beam
according to the user’s position. Some satellite networks carry out data transfer through
the gateway in the ground, while others using inter-satellite links. Some constellations
are composed of LEO, which can reduce the communication delay, while others use
MEO in their constellations, which can reduce the number of satellites. Numerous
design solutions focus on different needs and have different characteristics. Future
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J. Huang and J. Cao
composed of 20 MEO satellites. The final launch took place in April 2019 [13]. The
fleet of satellites orbits the earth in a circular, equatorial orbit at an altitude of 8063 km.
It covers all places between the north and south latitudes of 45° and can provide certain
services in the range of 45° to 62° in the south and north latitudes. Each satellite is
equipped with 12 fully steerable Ka-band antenna. Ten beams are for user terminals,
and two beams are for gateway connections. Each antenna provides a data throughput
of 1.25 GBit/s, 600 MBit/s for up and downlink resulting in a total capacity of
12.5 GBit/s per satellite [14].
In 2021, seven next-generation MEO satellites will be added to the O3b fleets,
forming O3b mPOWER, the new satellite-based system. With the addition of these
seven next-generation satellites, the O3b mPOWER system will have more than 30,000
fully shapeable and steerable beam, providing coverage of ±50° latitude for nearly 400
million km
2 [15].
2.6 Kuiper
Amazon confirmed in April 2019 that it has a plan to launch as many as 3236 LEO
satellites to cover regions between 56° north and 56° south latitudes where approximately 95% of the world’s population lives. The name of the project, “Kuiper”, comes
from a region of the Solar System, where there are many fragments of protoplanetary
disks that surround the Sun, known as the Kuiper Belt.
“Project Kuiper” is made up of LEO satellites rounding the earth at three different
altitudes, 784 satellites orbiting at an altitude of 590 km, 1296 satellites orbiting at an
altitude of 610 km, and 1156 satellites at an altitude of 630 km. At present, Project
Kuiper is still in the initial stage and has just submitted an application to the FCC. The
satellite launching will take another few years [16].
3 Development Prospect
1. A wide variety of design options will be explored
Commercial communication satellite systems designed by different companies have
different features. Some satellite systems such as Iridium-NEXT and Starlink provide
global coverage, while other satellite systems such as O3b mainly cover the middle and
low latitudes, thus reducing the satellite number and the system costs. Some satellites
have fixed attitude antennas, and others can dynamically adjust the antenna beam
according to the user’s position. Some satellite networks carry out data transfer through
the gateway in the ground, while others using inter-satellite links. Some constellations
are composed of LEO, which can reduce the communication delay, while others use
MEO in their constellations, which can reduce the number of satellites. Numerous
design solutions focus on different needs and have different characteristics. Future
534
J. Huang and J. Cao