The reconfigurable antenna can transmit and obtain alerts over a number of radio-frequency bands related to army and business functions.
The Multi-Band Check Terminal (MBTT), a satellite tv for pc communication(SATCOM) antenna at MIT Lincoln Laboratory can detect and observe satellites in medium and low Earth orbit. The Laboratory relied on quite a lot of smaller antennas for SATCOM testing which embrace Over-The Air-Ka Band-Check Terminal(OTAKaTT). The MBTT is designed to be simply reconfigured to help a number of radio frequency (RF) bands used for army and business satellite tv for pc SATCOM programs.
“U.S. Area Pressure’s Protected Anti-Jam Tactical SATCOM (PATS) is creating the aptitude to ship protected tactical waveform, or PTW, companies over WGS, in addition to over business transponder satellites and new DoD satellites with devoted onboard PTW processing,” says Brian Wolf, a technical employees member in Lincoln Laboratory’s Superior Satcom Techniques and Operations Group.
PTW was meant to function in a variety of RF bands related to satellite tv for pc communications. The MBTT was designed to help 4 generally used bands for SATCOM ranging in frequencies from 7 GHz to 46 GHz: X, Ku, Ka, and Q.
To change between completely different supported RF bands, the MBTT is to be reconfigured with a brand new antenna feed, which emits alerts onto and collects alerts from the antenna dish, and RF processing elements. This takes 4 to 6 hours to be accomplished by a staff of expert technicians earlier than scientists can run any assessments on the antenna. The MBTT antenna has supported a variety of assessments and experiments together with PTW. It has additionally been part of take a look at over a number of satellites just like the EchoStar 9 business satellite tv for pc, DoD-operated WGS satellites, and Inmarsat-5.
“Inmarsat-5 supplies a army Ka-band transponded service appropriate for PTW, in addition to a business Ka-band service referred to as International Xpress,” explains Wolf. “By way of the flight assessments, we had been in a position to display resilient end-to-end community connections throughout a number of SATCOM paths, together with PTW on army Ka-band and a business SATCOM service. This fashion, if one satellite tv for pc communications hyperlink is just not working properly — perhaps it’s congested with too many customers and bandwidth isn’t enough, or somebody is making an attempt to intervene with it — you’ll be able to change to the backup secondary hyperlink.”
The Laboratory appears ahead to performing extra testing with extra consumer communities within the DoD. As PTW reaches operational maturity, the MBTT, as a reference terminal, might help testing of distributors’ programs. And as PTS satellites with onboard PTW processing attain orbit, the MBTT might contribute to early on-orbit checkout, measurement, and characterization.
