Implementing a Software-Defined Radio Ground Station for Satellite Communications
Open Access
Author:
Lipnitskiy, Ilya Y
Area of Honors:
Electrical Engineering
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Dr. Sven G Bilén, Thesis Supervisor Dr. Sven G Bilén, Thesis Supervisor John Douglas Mitchell, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
software-defined radio USRP GMSK GFSK modulation digital transmission satellite communication Si4432 DSP GNU Radio
Abstract:
In this project a satellite communication system is designed using a software-defined radio. The system consists of the ground station implemented with a Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) and the Si4432 hardware transceiver to be used on the satellite. Using a software-defined radio makes the communication system very flexible. A spectrally efficient digital modulation scheme is selected and a data packet structure is proposed. The system design considers peculiarities of both the USRP and the hardware Si4432 transceiver. Both the USRP and the Si4432 transceiver are then configured according to the proposed design. Test data is collected from the communication program, validated, and analyzed. Finally, possible improvements to the design are discussed and future opportunities explored.
