Satellite link margin prediction and performance of ASTRO Malaysia

The link performance prediction is important to ensure sufficient customer link margin and transmission availability. In this paper, a link budget prediction tool for analyzing and comparing predicted and measured C/N and E_b/N₀ using a typical link margin and transmission availability been developed using Matlab. A study was conducted in ASTRO´s uplink station facility in Cyberjaya on 13.2 m and 0.6 m downlink antenna. It was shown that the C/N and E_b/N₀ measured value for both antennas were about ± 3 dB as compared to predicted values. The link margin for both values was found sufficient in the worst case condition due to signal attenuation. For 13.2 m antenna, C/N´s link margin is 12 dB and E_b/N₀´s link margin is 8.1 dB while for 0.6 m, C/N´s link margin is 3.5 dB and E_b/N₀´s link margin is 5.8 dB. The total transmission availability conforms to the standard which was promised to their customer with more than 99.7% availability.