Communication satellite link budget optimization using gravitational search algorithm

A communication satellites play a large role in the socio-economic development of a country, however the satellite communication system design trade-offs increase with the complexity of the payload requirements. For reliable and dynamic in-orbit satellite operations, the payload receiver must have the capability to adapt to emergent mission and post-mission application requirements. The communication link between a satellite and the Earth Station (ES) is exposed to a lot of impairments such as noise, rain and atmospheric attenuations. It is also prone to loss such as those resulting from antenna misalignment and polarization. It is therefore crucial to design for all possible attenuation scenarios before the satellite is deployed. This paper presents the fundamentals of a satellite link budget of generic communication satellite. Furthermore, a system engineering case study for a satellite communications mission is presented. Adopting this design philosophy in future space satellite payload module promises stable, economical, optimal, broadband and adaptive space operations. In this paper a Gravitational Search Algorithm based on the law of gravity and mass interactions is introduced. In the proposed algorithm, the searcher agents are a collection of masses which interact with each other based on the Newtonian gravity and the laws of motion.