Phase noise in low bit rate transportable Ka band satellite terminals

The development of low bit rate terminals for use with wide bandwidth Ka band transponders, such as ACTS, has forced a reconsideration of phase noise and how it effects low bit rate systems. In this paper we initially calculate the cumulative effect of the phase noise contributions from the oscillators in the ground based transmitter, satellite transponder, and the ground based receiver. We will discuss the cases where the carrier power-to-phase noise power ratio is much larger and much smaller than the carrier power-to-noise/interference power ratio. We extend our results to the case of non-white phase noise spectrum and compare with actual oscillator spectra. We also will discuss complications arising from the fact that one cannot change the phase noise characteristics of the spacecraft. We conclude by illustrating how these analyses can be used to predict the increase in error probability due to phase noise