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About the course

As the communications industry has evolved, each new technology has provided increased throughput and flexibility but none more so than in the field of satellite communications. The IET’s Satcoms training course has equipped engineers all over the world for a career in satellite communications for over 30 years.

Taught by a diverse panel of industry experts, government technologists and academics, the comprehensive course syllabus is designed to provide the most relevant, industry-standard technical training for the professional satcom engineer.

The course programme runs across six days and includes industry-focused projects enabling you to put knowledge into practice straight away.

The course structure has been designed to lead the participant through each topic in a logical and accessible sequence bringing even the new entrant into the industry, up to speed with today’s technology.

Module one: Satcoms essentials

Covers satellite communications essentials: introduction to commercial and milsatcom use, future technology trends as well as the design goals of a Satcoms application engineer, preparing students to begin linking subsequent lectures to specific elements of a Satcom application.

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Module two: Link engineering

Satellite systems planning and a thorough understanding of link budgets and QoS design.

You will learn how to assess the channel performance for fixed and mobile satellite links as well as how to include the effects of intermodulation in the link budgets.

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Module three: Access and networks

Spacecraft engineering and operation including antennas and payload design.

You will learn how to identify the main components of the communications payload and identify how designs are impacted by the changing needs of the user.

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Module four: Antennas and spacecraft

Earth station design and satellite applications including access techniques and IP over satellite.

You will learn basic Satcom network architectures (Hub, Mesh), and multiplexing concepts.

Spread spectrum techniques and CDMA are described, and schemes compared.

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Module five: Regulations and spectrum management

This module focuses on Spectrum management and the regulations around it, including policy directions from OFCOM and the technologies and solutions you need for efficient spectrum management.

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Module six: Workshop exercises

Practical exercises on payload design and earth station design will allow you to put into practice what you have learned over the past few days during the course with focus on earth station design and payload design.

This is a hybrid day, giving delegates the option to attend in-person or on-line. Those attending in-person can also opt in to visit Airbus’ facilities in Stevenage.

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Benefits of attending the Satcoms course

  • Satellite systems planning and a thorough understanding of link budgets and QoS design:
    • Identify modulation and encoding techniques for optimised performance of satcoms systems;
    • Understand link budgets to assist you to sell the service products and better understand what is achievable in terms of quality of service.

  • Spacecraft engineering and operation including antennas and payload design - better position yourself to work for satellite manufacturers that design spacecraft and the payload (plus support communication services hosted on it).

  • Earth station design and satellite applications including access techniques and IP over satellite - so you will be able to achieve the highest (optimised) throughput, customer traffic and select the most appropriate access techniques for a given application to enable applications to work more efficiently; You will also understand better the key parts of ground stations and be better placed to select the most suitable equipment for each applications.

  • Networks and system design, current commercial and military use as well as likely future trends - gain a better appreciation of the core principles, techniques and knowledge required to design complete end-to-end systems. Take away the essential tools and skills to enable you to work across a wide spectrum of terminal manufacturers, platform vendors, satellite providers and network operators.