2013/03/01 by A. Budianu, T.J. Willink Castro, Arjan Meijerink +1 · 1 citation
Engineering · Computer Science · #Satellite Communication Systems #Energy Harvesting in Wireless Networks #Opportunistic and Delay-Tolerant Networks #CubeSat #Computer science #Beamforming #Software deployment #Communications satellite #Electronic engineering #Throughput #Transmission (telecommunications) #Antenna (radio) #Communications system #Satellite #Wireless #Telecommunications #Engineering #Aerospace engineering
paper · doi:10.1109/aero.2013.6496947
openalex publication_date 2013/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Realizing inter-satellite links is a must for ensuring the success of cubesat swarm missions. Nevertheless, it has hardly been considered until now. The communication systems for cubesats have to deal with a few peculiar demands regarding consumed power, geometry and throughput. Depending on the type of application, required data rates can go up to tens of megabits per second, while power consumption and physical size are limited by the platform. The proposed communication scheme will combine power-efficient modulation and channel coding with multiple access and spread spectrum techniques, enabling the deployment of multiple satellites. Apart from this, the antenna system has to be designed such that links can be established and maintained independent of the satellites' orientation. An electrically steerable radiation pattern is achieved by placing antennas on each face of the cube. Conformal beamforming provides the system with 5 dBi gain for any desired direction of transmission, eliminating the need for attitude control. Furthermore, using planar antennas reduces the complexity of the mechanical part as they require no deployment.