KA BAND FOR SPACE TO SPACE AND SPACE TO GROUND SATELLITE COMMUNICATION

The work carried out presents the study and evaluation of Ka-band satellite links with a central frequency set at 26.25 GHz, with reference to space–ground and satellite–satellite scenarios. A methodological procedure has been developed that combines orbital propagation starting from the TLE file, radiometric analysis through MATLAB using both the Satellite Communications Toolbox and the Link Budget Analyzer application, and a software-defined chain implemented in GNU Radio with a channel emulator. The results show how geometric parameters and tropospheric conditions critically influence the link margin and the achievable throughput: downlinks ensure capacities on the order of Gbps, while cross-links are more limited due to antenna and G/T constraints. The work therefore provides a repeatable procedure for the preliminary design of Ka-band links and an experimental testbed useful for model validation and the planning of future tests.