Graphical User Interface

To use Satlink's graphical interface, the user must run main_window.py via python.

From there, the user has 4 list options File, Single Point Calculation, List Calculation and Help.

home

File

Same as Satlink's main classes, the graphical user interface uses 3 types of parameters: satellite parameters, reception parameters and ground station parameters. Each one has a unique file extension and can be saved/loaded. The File menu lists page options to manage these files outside of calculation windows.

See save/load dialog window for more details in these options and file types.

file menu

Satellite

To create a satellite, one user must fill the following fields:

  • Name: satellite identification name
  • Longitude: geostationary satellite longitude in degrees
  • Frequency: frequency in GHz
  • E.I.R.P: transponder maximum E.I.R.P. in dBW
  • Altitude: satellite height in Km
  • Transponder's max bandwidth: transponder bandwidth in MHz
  • Effective bandwidth: actual used transponder bandwidth
  • back_off: decrease in transmitted power to avoid non-linear amplification
  • Modulation: modulations and FEC combinations from the available list of modulations/FECs
  • Roll-off: factor of spectral efficiency, ROF (Roll-Off Factor)
  • Polarization: horizontal, vertical or circular polarization

satellite page

Click on "Save" button to save satellite parameters to a .sat file.

Click on "Load" button to load satellite parameters from a .sat file.

Click on "Clear" button to clear all fields on the screen.

Ground Station

To create a ground station, one user must fill the following fields:

  • Name: ground station identification name
  • Latitude: site latitude in decimal degrees
  • Longitude: site longitude in decimal degrees

grpund station page

Click on "Save" button to save satellite parameters to a .gst file.

Click on "Load" button to load satellite parameters from a .gst file.

Click on "Clear" button to clear all fields on the screen.

Reception

To create a reception system, one user must fill the following fields:

  • Name: reception identification name
  • Antenna size: antenna diameter in meters
  • Antenna efficiency: antenna efficiency (between 0 and 1)
  • LNB gain: LNB (Low Noise Block) in dB
  • LNB noise temp.: LNB noise temperature in Kelvin
  • Additional losses: connection and any other losses considered at reception in dB
  • Cable loss: cable loss in dB
  • Maximum depointing: maximum depointing angle between transmission and reception (degrees)

reception page

Click on "Save" button to save satellite parameters to a .rcp file.

Click on "Load" button to load satellite parameters from a .rcp file.

Click on "Clear" button to clear all fields on the screen.

Single Point Calculation

Single point calculations consists in 3 types of functionalities: Atmospheric Attenuation, Downlink Performance and Antenna Size. This type of operation returns a complete analysis in a report type format.

single point menu

Atmospheric Attenuation

In this screen, the user can estimate complete atmospheric attenuation data with minimum parameters.

Inputs

  • Reception parameters (ground station coordinates + reception antenna parameters):
    • Latitude: site longitude in decimal degrees
    • Longitude: site longitude in decimal degrees
    • Antenna size: antenna diameter in meters
    • Antenna efficiency: antenna efficiency (between 0 and 1)
  • Satellite parameters:
    • Longitude: geostationary satellite longitude in degrees
    • Frequency: frequency in GHz
    • Polarization: horizontal, vertical or circular polarization
  • Excess % of time per year: percentage of time the values are exceeded
  • Method: exact or approximate calculation methods from ITU 676

Default Satellites box has a satellite list that sets the longitude coordinates accordingly.

Buttons

  • Load Ground Station: loads latitude and longitude from a .gst file.
  • Load Reception: loads antenna size and antenna efficiency from a .rcp file.
  • Load Satellite: loads satellite parameters from a .sat file.

single point atm

Outputs

  • Earth's radius in lat/long (km)
  • Elevation angle (degrees)
  • Link length (km)
  • Ground noise temperature (K)
  • Sky brightness temperature (K)
  • Antenna noise temperature (K)
  • Antenna noise temperature w/ rain (K)
  • Total noise temperature (K)
  • Reception antenna gain (dBi)
  • Reception antenna 3dB beamwidth (degrees)
  • Figure of Merit (dB/K)
  • Gaseous attenuation (dB)
  • Cloud attenuation (dB)
  • Rain attenuation (dB)
  • Scintillation attenuation (dB)
  • Total atmospheric attenuation (dB)
  • Free space attenuation (dB)
  • Free space + atmospheric + depointing attenuation (dB)

In this screen, the user can estimate a link budget and availability of a satellite downlink.

Inputs

  • Ground Station parameters
    • Name: ground station identification name
    • Latitude: site latitude in decimal degrees
    • Longitude: site longitude in decimal degrees
  • Satellite parameters
    • Name: satellite identification name
    • Longitude: geostationary satellite longitude in degrees
    • Frequency: frequency in GHz
    • E.I.R.P: transponder maximum E.I.R.P. in dBW
    • Altitude: satellite height in Km
    • Transponder's max bandwidth: transponder bandwidth in MHz
    • Effective bandwidth: actual used transponder bandwidth
    • back_off: decrease in transmitted power to avoid non-linear amplification
    • Modulation: modulations and FEC combinations from the available list of modulations/FECs
    • Roll-off: factor of spectral efficiency, ROF (Roll-Off Factor)
    • Polarization: horizontal, vertical or circular polarization
  • Reception parameters
    • Name: reception identification name
    • Antenna size: antenna diameter in meters
    • Antenna efficiency: antenna efficiency (between 0 and 1)
    • LNB gain: LNB (Low Noise Block) in dB
    • LNB noise temp.: LNB noise temperature in Kelvin
    • Additional losses: connection and any other losses considered in the reception in dB
    • Cable loss: cable loss in dB
    • Maximum depointing: maximum depointing angle between transmission and reception (degrees)
  • Calculation parameters
    • SNR target relaxation: (+-) relaxation over the error between the target value and actual snr in availability calculation
    • Margin: summed value over the modulation threshold to be considered. If margin = 0, the calculation target equals the modulation threshold.

Default Satellites box has a satellite list that sets the longitude coordinates accordingly.

Buttons

  • Ground Station buttons
    • Clear: clears ground station fields
    • Load: loads ground station parameters from a .gst file.
    • Save: loads ground station parameters into a .gst file.
  • Reception buttons
    • Clear: clears reception fields
    • Load Reception: loads reception parameters from a .rcp file.
    • Save: loads reception parameters into a .rcp file.
  • Satellite buttons
    • Clear: clears satellite fields
    • Load Reception: loads satellite parameters from a .rcp file.
    • Save: loads satellite parameters into a .rcp file.
  • Calculate: runs the link performance calculation.

single point atm

Outputs

  • Link budget at 0.001% of the year
    • C/N0 (dB)
    • SNR (dB)
  • Actual SNR target's availability (year%)
  • Reception characteristics:
    • Earth's radius in lat/long (km)
    • Elevation angle (degrees)
    • Link length (km)
    • Ground noise temperature (K)
    • Sky brightness temperature (K)
    • Antenna noise temperature (K)
    • Antenna noise temperature w/ rain (K)
    • Total noise temperature (K)
    • Reception antenna gain (dBi)
    • Reception antenna 3dB beamwidth (degrees)
    • Figure of Merit (dB/K)
  • Link budget Analysis:
    • Gaseous attenuation (dB)
    • Cloud attenuation (dB)
    • Rain attenuation (dB)
    • Scintillation attenuation (dB)
    • Total atmospheric attenuation (dB)
    • Free space attenuation (dB)
    • Free space + atmospheric + depointing attenuation (dB)
    • Reception threshold (SNR) (dB)

Antenna Size

In this screen, the user can estimate the availability for multiple antenna sizes of a satellite downlink.

Inputs

  • Ground Station parameters
    • Name: ground station identification name
    • Latitude: site latitude in decimal degrees
    • Longitude: site longitude in decimal degrees
  • Satellite parameters
    • Name: satellite identification name
    • Longitude: geostationary satellite longitude in degrees
    • Frequency: frequency in GHz
    • E.I.R.P: transponder maximum E.I.R.P. in dBW
    • Altitude: satellite height in Km
    • Transponder's max bandwidth: transponder bandwidth in MHz
    • Effective bandwidth: actual used transponder bandwidth
    • back_off: decrease in transmitted power to avoid non-linear amplification
    • Modulation: modulations and FEC combinations from the available list of modulations/FECs
    • Roll-off: factor of spectral efficiency, ROF (Roll-Off Factor)
    • Polarization: horizontal, vertical or circular polarization
  • Reception parameters
    • Name: reception identification name
    • Antenna efficiency: antenna efficiency (between 0 and 1)
    • LNB gain: LNB (Low Noise Block) in dB
    • LNB noise temp.: LNB noise temperature in Kelvin
    • Additional losses: connection and any other losses considered in the reception in dB
    • Cable loss: cable loss in dB
    • Maximum depointing: maximum depointing angle between transmission and reception (degrees)
  • Calculation parameters
    • Ant. min. size: minimum antenna diameter to be calculated in meters
    • Ant. max. size: maximum antenna diameter to be calculated in meters
    • Margin: summed value over the modulation threshold to be considered. If margin = 0, the calculation target equals the modulation threshold.

Default Satellites box has a satellite list that sets the longitude coordinates accordingly.

Buttons

  • Ground Station buttons
    • Clear: clears ground station fields
    • Load: loads ground station parameters from a .gst file.
    • Save: loads ground station parameters into a .gst file.
  • Reception buttons
    • Clear: clears reception fields
    • Load Reception: loads reception parameters from a .rcp file.
    • Save: loads reception parameters into a .rcp file.
  • Satellite buttons
    • Clear: clears satellite fields
    • Load Reception: loads satellite parameters from a .rcp file.
    • Save: loads satellite parameters into a .rcp file.
  • Calculate button: runs the link performance calculation.
  • Export graph button: save the displayed graph in a .png image file.

single ant size

Outputs

There are two outputs in this operation: a list in text format containing antenna size vs. availability and a matplotlib graph will also be displayed.

List Calculation

Multiple point calculations consists in 2 functionalities: Downlink Performance and Antenna Size. These operations use a .csv file as input and return a new .csv file with a result column.

multi point menu

In this screen, the user can estimate the availability of satellite downlink for multiple points.

Inputs
  • Path: path to the input .csv file
  • .csv file columns: Name, Lat, Long, Delta Footprint (optional)
    • Name: point name
    • Lat: point latitude in decimal degrees
    • Longitude: point longitude in decimal degrees
    • Delta Footprint: optional argument. Represents the difference between the maximum power received and the received one in the chosen coordinate (in case of footprint differences between coordinates)
    • a .csv example can be found in input examples folder
  • Satellite parameters
    • Name: satellite identification name
    • Longitude: geostationary satellite longitude in degrees
    • Frequency: frequency in GHz
    • E.I.R.P: transponder maximum E.I.R.P. in dBW
    • Altitude: satellite height in Km
    • Transponder's max bandwidth: transponder bandwidth in MHz
    • Effective bandwidth: actual used transponder bandwidth
    • back_off: decrease in transmitted power to avoid non-linear amplification
    • Modulation: modulations and FEC combinations from the available list of modulations/FECs
    • Roll-off: factor of spectral efficiency, ROF (Roll-Off Factor)
    • Polarization: horizontal, vertical or circular polarization
  • Reception parameters
    • Name: reception identification name
    • Antenna size: antenna diameter in meters
    • Antenna efficiency: antenna efficiency (between 0 and 1)
    • LNB gain: LNB (Low Noise Block) in dB
    • LNB noise temp.: LNB noise temperature in Kelvin
    • Additional losses: connection and any other losses considered in the reception in dB
    • Cable loss: cable loss in dB
    • Maximum depointing: maximum depointing angle between transmission and reception (degrees)
  • Calculation parameters
    • SNR target relaxation: (+-) relaxation over the error between the target value and actual SNR in availability calculation
    • Margin: summed value over the modulation threshold to be considered. If margin = 0, the calculation target equals the modulation threshold.
    • Threads: number of simultaneous executed calculations. The maximum number o threads depends on the user's processor.

Default Satellites box has a satellite list that sets the longitude coordinates accordingly.

Buttons

  • Browse button: opens a dialog box to select the .csv file used as input for the calculations.
  • Reception buttons
    • Clear: clears reception fields
    • Load Reception: loads reception parameters from a .rcp file.
    • Save: loads reception parameters into a .rcp file.
  • Satellite buttons
    • Clear: clears satellite fields
    • Load Reception: loads satellite parameters from a .rcp file.
    • Save: loads satellite parameters into a .rcp file.
  • Calculate: runs the link performance calculation.

multi point menu

Outputs

A progress bar will appear when the process is started. When the process is completed, the progress bar will disappear, and a 'Complete!' message will show up. After that, the user can see the .csv output file in results folder.

Antenna Size

In this screen, the user can estimate the availability of satellite downlink for multiple points.

Inputs
  • Path: path to the input .csv file
  • .csv file columns: Name, Lat, Long, Delta Footprint (optional)
    • Name: point name
    • Lat: point latitude in decimal degrees
    • Longitude: point longitude in decimal degrees
    • Delta Footprint: optional argument. Represents the difference between the maximum power received and the received one in the chosen coordinate (in case of footprint differences between coordinates)
    • a .csv example can be found in input examples folder
  • Satellite parameters
    • Name: satellite identification name
    • Longitude: geostationary satellite longitude in degrees
    • Frequency: frequency in GHz
    • E.I.R.P: transponder maximum E.I.R.P. in dBW
    • Altitude: satellite height in Km
    • Transponder's max bandwidth: transponder bandwidth in MHz
    • Effective bandwidth: actual used transponder bandwidth
    • back_off: decrease in transmitted power to avoid non-linear amplification
    • Modulation: modulations and FEC combinations from the available list of modulations/FECs
    • Roll-off: factor of spectral efficiency, ROF (Roll-Off Factor)
    • Polarization: horizontal, vertical or circular polarization
  • Reception parameters
    • Name: reception identification name
    • LNB gain: LNB (Low Noise Block) in dB
    • LNB noise temp.: LNB noise temperature in Kelvin
    • Additional losses: connection and any other losses considered in the reception in dB
    • Cable loss: cable loss in dB
    • Maximum depointing: maximum depointing angle between transmission and reception (degrees)
    • Antenna efficiency: antenna efficiency (between 0 and 1)
  • Calculation parameters
    • Availability target: availability to be achieved in calculations (% - between 0 and 99.999). Satlink will choose the minimum atenna size for the chosen availability.
    • SNR target relaxation: (+-) relaxation over the error between the target value and actual SNR in availability calculation
    • Margin: summed value over the modulation threshold to be considered. If margin = 0, the calculation target equals the modulation threshold.
    • Threads: number of simultaneous executed calculations. The maximum number o threads depends on the user's processor.

Default Satellites box has a satellite list that sets the longitude coordinates accordingly.

Buttons

  • Browse button: opens a dialog box to select the .csv file used as input for the calculations.
  • Reception buttons
    • Clear: clears reception fields
    • Load Reception: loads reception parameters from a .rcp file.
    • Save: loads reception parameters into a .rcp file.
  • Satellite buttons
    • Clear: clears satellite fields
    • Load Reception: loads satellite parameters from a .rcp file.
    • Save: loads satellite parameters into a .rcp file.
  • Calculate: runs the link performance calculation.

multi point menu

Outputs

A progress bar will appear when the process is started. When the process is completed, the progress bar will disappear, and a 'Complete!' message will show up. After that, the user can see the .csv output file in results folder.

Save/load dialog boxes

When every save/load/export button is clicked, a dialog box will open with file path, name and type as options.

dialog_save

dialog_load

Trying to load a different type of file extension might crash the software.

File types

For file input examples, please check inputs_examples folder.

  • .sat - satellite characteristics file
  • .rcp - reception characteristics file
  • .gsp - ground station characteristics file
  • .csv - list calculation functions input/output format

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