Satellite EMIRFI Mitigation

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Satellite EMI/RFI Mitigation

• DoD Satcom Users Workshop
• 5-7 December 2006

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• Agenda
• Introduction Background
• Wartime Experiences
• Mitigation Fronts

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Introduction

• SUIRGs Mission
• SUIRG is a not-for-profit international assembly
  of parties, within which members work towards the
  reduction of radio frequency interference (RFI)
  through pro-active programs and education.

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Its goals are to

• Develop means to reduce RFI on communication
  satellites
• Promote and further equipment design with the
  view to minimize interference
• Share, for the mutual benefit of all, information
  including procedures and guidelines related to
  troublesome interference situations

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Who Belongs

• Communication Satellite Operators
• Satellite Service Users
• Satellite Monitoring Equipment Vendors
• Other Organizations concerned with Interference
• Founding Members Intelsat, PanAmSat, Inmarsat,
  NewSkies, QinetiQ, Glowlink
• Military oriented members General Dynamics,
  Aerospace Corp., Mitre

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Global Interference Combatants

• World Broadcasting Union/International Satellite
  Operations Group
• Cable And Satellite Broadcast Association Asia
• US Govt Organizations
• Asia Pacific Satellite Communications Council
• Global VSAT Forum
• World Teleport Association
• SUIRG

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More Effective, Coordinated Approach
Interference Issues
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Wartime Experiences

• Military use of commercial Satcom has grown
  significantly during the Iraq war
• 1990-91 Iraq War 99 Mbps/542,000
• 900 kbps/5000 troops
• Kosovo (1999) 250 Mbps/51,000
• 24.5 Mbps/5000 troops
• 2003-05 Iraq War 3200 Mbps/132,000
• 121 Mbps/5000 troops
• 80 of all satellite bandwidth used by military
  in Iraq is provided by commercial providers
• E.g. Intelsat, Eutelsat, PanAmSat, NSS

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Tracked Carrier Problems 7/04-10/05
Long-term tracked com. problems 512 in period
7/04-10/05
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Breakdown of Satcom Problems 7/04-10/05
Interference Accounted for 9.8 of
Communication problems
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Upshot

• 21 of 50 cases of interference cause never found
• 9 of these were CW, 5 sweepers
• All cases of CW sweepers occurred in Southwest
  Asia (Iraq)
• Classification concerns preclude a further
  description, but...
• Reasonable to believe these were intentional
  hostile interference, or jamming

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Vulnerabilities of Commercial Satcom

• Prone to denial of service attack
• Uplink jamming possible from a wide area with
  rudimentary equipment
• Transponders made for a competitive market, not
  war time
• Many customers served, prevents some types of
  jamming defense
• Interception Spoofing less likely
• Reception is easy, decryption is hard
• Spoofing a Full Duplex link is hard
• Spoofing a Broadcast is easier

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SUIRG Mitigation Fronts

• Interference fighting on 6 fronts
• Problem recognition
• Location of hidden interference
• Source Geo-location
• Removal
• Operational Awareness
• Regulatory

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• Active SUIRG Programs
• Training and Certification WG
• Interference Source Locator WG
• Up-linker Database
• Interference Incident Analysis Database
• Interference Signature Resolution Database
  (under development)
• Membership assistance
• Regulatory WG

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New users in C-band downlinks
BWA or IMT in ANY part of our C-band downlink
will have an impact on FSS reception in ALL of
the band
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Unwanted emissions
Signals appear at the input of the LNB with a
much higher power density than the satellite
signals
How much suppression of out-of-band components
can one realistically expect from BWA or IMT
equipment? Appendix 3 of the Radio Regulations
provide limits for spurious emissions
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Benefits of Satellite Interference Reduction

• Increased revenues from the freeing of lost
  capacity and reduction of service rebates
• Reduced costs in manpower needed to address
  interference problems and from simplification of
  operations
• Improved customer satisfaction through better
  quality of service
• Military field interference can cost lives.

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• Acknowledgements
• CACI for military slides
• AsiaSat for WiMax charts

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• Interested in supporting SUIRGs activities
• Bob Ames (bobames_at_suirg.org)
• www.suirg.org
• Copy of newsletter and membership brochure
  available.