In: Electrical Engineering
Propagation Delay
A satellite phone connects to orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites. When you speak into a satellite phone , the signal has to travel from you to the satellite, from the satellite to the other person, and all the way back from the other person to the satellite and then satellite to you. What is the round trip propagation delay when you use a satellite phone for communication? You may assume that the satellite orbits at a height of 21,000 miles from the surface of the earth. This is the size of the orbit used by geosynchronous satellites whose orbital period is 24 hours, this means that the satellite is always over the same point on the planet. Because of this delay many satellite phone systems use groups of satellites with lower orbits and hand off the calls between them. Satellite TV systems do use geosynchronous satellites so that you can just point your dish at one point in the sky. Delay is less of a problem for one way communications such as video or other broadcasts. Careful: you need to convert to a consistent set of units to use in your calculation.