About this course: How is a satellite built? How do they fly? How do they communicate and how does the network operate? You will get all the answers in this course from teachers and researchers from three schools associated with Institut Mines-Télécom. The course is made of : teaching videos, equipment demonstrations and simulation programs. They will guide you through the discovery of satellite communications. Professionals in the space field will share there vocation for this scientific and technical sector. Have you ever wanted to know more about transponders, the geostationary orbit, QPSK modulation, channel coding, link budget, TCP over large bandwdith x delay product links ? This course is for you! This course is available in English: French-speaking lecturers with English subtitles and fully translated contents (slides, practices). This MOOC is supported by the Patrick and Lina Drahi Foundation.
Created by: Institut Mines-Télécom
Taught by: Laurent Franck, Professor
IMT Atlantique, on leave to Airbus Defence & Space as of September 1st, 2017
Taught by: Tarik Benaddi, Assistant Professor
IMT Atlantique
Taught by: Julien Fasson, Associate Professor
INPT/ENSEEIHT
Taught by: Nathalie Thomas, Associate professor
INPT/ENSEEIHT
Taught by: Marie-Laure Boucheret, Professor
INPT/ENSEEIHT
| Level | Beginner |
| Commitment | 6 weeks of study, 2-4 hours/week |
| Language | English, Subtitles: French |
| Hardware Req | No hardware is required for this MOOC |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Satellites at our service
This module provides an introduction to satellite communications. Why using satellites ? What sort of communication services ? How much does it cost ?
27 videos, 4 readings, 7 practice quizzes
- Reading: Let's start!
- Video: Greetings, Earthling
- Video: Learning in six weeks (or more, or less)
- Reading: The course contents in the blink of an eye
- Reading: Getting the most from diverse contents
- Reading: Practicing with the LabVIEW(tm) educational programs
- Practice Quiz: Warm up quiz
- Video: Introduction
- Video: The conquest
- Video: The challenges
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ1-1
- Video: Conclusion
- Video: Going further: the Van Allen belt
- Video: Introduction
- Video: The first steps
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ1-2
- Video: Communications capacity
- Video: Communications satellites today
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ1-3
- Video: Conclusion
- Video: Going further: communications capacity (the return)
- Video: Introduction & strengths of satellites
- Video: A variety of services
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ1-4
- Video: Conclusion
- Video: Going further: positioning in networks
- Video: Introduction & navigation
- Video: Observation
- Video: Conclusion
- Video: Going further: space exploration
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ1-5
- Video: Introduction & the market players
- Video: Economic elements
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ1-6
- Video: Conclusion
- Video: Nathalie Font - marketing
- Video: Remi Lapeyre - spacecraft operations
- Video: Common thread: Internet by satellite
Graded: Weekly quiz, WQ1
WEEK 2
Satellite and communications
This module describes the overall architecture of a satellite communications system, discusses the concept of orbit and what are the typical sub-systems of a satellite
21 videos, 2 readings, 6 practice quizzes
- Video: Introduction & a matter of segments
- Video: A matter of links
- Video: System engineering
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ2-1
- Video: Laws of a space communication system
- Video: Conclusion
- Video: Going further: managing multiple access by terminals
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ2-2
- Video: Introduction
- Video: Overview
- Video: Various types of orbit
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ2-3
- Video: Relationship between orbit and service
- Video: Conclusion
- Video: Going further: Kepler lays down the law
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ2-4
- Reading: LabVIEW educational program: orbits
- Reading: LabVIEW educational program: satellite position
- Video: Introduction
- Video: The platform and its subsystems
- Video: Payload: antennas
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ2-5
- Video: Payload: repeater
- Video: Conclusion
- Video: Going further: repeater for mesh architecture
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ2-6
- Video: Patricia Iñigo Martinez - system engineering
- Video: Nicolas Jacquey - payload engineering
- Video: Common thread: Internet by satellite
Graded: Weekly quiz, WQ2
WEEK 3
Digital communications
This module discusses the basics of information transmission
18 videos, 4 readings, 3 practice quizzes
- Video: Introduction
- Video: Bit rate
- Video: Bit error rate
- Video: Conclusion
- Reading: Going further: signal digitization
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ3-1
- Video: Introduction
- Video: Bit rate / symbol rate
- Video: Concept of frequency
- Video: Bandwidth occupied by the signal
- Video: Bandwidth / rate relation
- Video: Carrier transmission
- Video: Conclusion
- Reading: Going further: signal shaping
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ3-2
- Video: Introduction
- Video: Free space propagation
- Video: Limited bandwidth
- Video: Noise
- Video: Conclusion
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ3-3
- Reading: LabVIEW educational program: simple signals
- Reading: LabVIEW educational program: baseband modulation
- Video: Mohamed Benseddik - regulatory affairs
- Video: Common thread: Internet by satellite
Graded: Weekly quiz, WQ3
WEEK 4
Communication techniques
This module covers advanced transmission concepts such as modulation and coding. These operations are the core of a communications system impacting the service performance.
17 videos, 4 readings, 5 practice quizzes
- Video: Introduction
- Video: BPSK modulation
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ4-1
- Video: QPSK modulation
- Video: QAM modulation
- Video: PSK modulation
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ4-2
- Video: Demodulation
- Video: Bit error rate (BER)
- Practice Quiz: Practice quizz, PQ4-3
- Video: Conclusion
- Reading: Going further : I/Q demodulator
- Reading: Going further : APSK modulations
- Reading: LabVIEW educational program: DVB-S2 carrier modulation
- Reading: LabVIEW educational program: signal amplification
- Video: Introduction
- Video: Repetition Codes
- Video: Binary block codes
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ4-4
- Video: The coding gain
- Video: The impact of the code efficiency on the BER
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ4-5
- Video: Conclusion
- Video: Bouchra Benammar - research and development
- Video: Mathieu Dervin - research and development
- Video: Common thread: Internet by satellite
Graded: Weekly quiz, WQ4
WEEK 5
Hardware and equipments
This module lists the equipments that take part to the communication chain on ground and how the overall communication performance can be assessed
23 videos, 2 readings, 7 practice quizzes
- Video: Introduction & terminal types and general architecture
- Video: Light terminals
- Video: Portable, transportable and fixed terminals
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ5-1
- Video: Mobile terminals
- Video: Conclusion
- Video: Going further: functioning of an antenna with automatic pointing
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ5-2
- Video: Introduction
- Video: Antennas
- Reading: Going further: everything you wanted to know about antennas ...
- Video: RF elements
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ5-3
- Video: Frequency conversion and modems
- Video: Interconnection with Earth
- Video: Other aspects
- Video: Conclusion
- Video: Going further: monitoring the health of the satellite
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ5-4
- Video: Introduction
- Video: Analog link budget
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ5-5
- Video: The noise component
- Video: The end-to-end budget
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ5-6
- Video: Digital link budget
- Video: Conclusion & Going further: other factors in the link budget
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ5-7
- Reading: LabVIEW educational program: single link budget
- Video: Cynthia Fontana - satellite transmissions
- Video: Hervé Gaudefroy - products and services development
- Video: Internet by satellite
Graded: Weekly quiz, WQ5
WEEK 6
Networking and services
This module explains how services such as voice, television and Internet access are provided by means of communications satellites.
20 videos, 8 practice quizzes
- Video: Introduction
- Video: Before the Internet
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ6-1
- Video: Internet and the notion of network
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ6-2
- Video: Interconnection and interoperability: a real issue
- Video: The notion of protocol
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ6-3
- Video: Going further: Internet Protocol and the hourglass
- Video: From analog to digital
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ6-4
- Video: DVB-S
- Video: Evolutions
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ6-5
- Video: Independent systems
- Video: Globalstar vs Iridium
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ6-6
- Video: Interconnection with mobile telephony networks
- Video: Voice over IP
- Video: Going further: Impact of a satellite link on QoS
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ6-7
- Video: What are we talking about?
- Video: Need for a return link
- Video: IP over satellite: the challenges
- Practice Quiz: Practice quiz, PQ6-8
- Video: Sandrine Lafont - ground segments and services
- Video: Alain Frizon - satellite programme
- Video: Common thread: Internet by satellite
Graded: Weekly quiz, WQ6
FAQs
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Coursework
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Creators
Institut Mines-Télécom
Institut Mines-Télécom is a public institution dedicated to higher education, research and innovation in engineering and digital technologies.
Always attentive to the economic world, IMT combines strong academic legitimacy, close corporate relations. It focuses on key transformations in Digital Technologies, Production, Energy and Ecology and trains the engineers, managers and PhDs who will be tomorrow’s players in these key changes of the 21st century.
Its activities are conducted in Mines and Télécom graduate schools under the aegis of the Minister for Industry and Electronic Communication, one subsidiary school and three strategic partners. The IMT’s schools rank among the leading graduate schools in France.
Ratings and Reviews
Very understandable and instructive from the surface till the detailed parts
good
This course is a big opportunity to clarify a bunch of doubts about satellite communications, I really love the aerospace field, and this brief and objective information in the course has been son helpful.
I would like you to know that I truly loved the "Testimonies from professionals" sections, most of them were so inspiring to me, and motivated me to keep growing up in this matter.
I highly recommend this course!
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AB
Nice introductory course, but too much material is pushed in format text into the "Going further" sections and the educational programs need the installation of LabVIEW and a toolkit only available on Windows.