The performance of what the company says is a unique one-satellite geolocation solution that is now being deployed across its global monitoring network has been validated, Eutelsat Communications has announced. The SIECAMS ILS ONE service developed by Siemens Convergence Creators is said to assist in the localisation of interference signals without the need for an adjacent satellite, thereby increasing Eutelsat’s ability to intervene in the event of accidental or deliberate interference to customer signals.
Existing satellite geolocation systems call for at least two geostationary satellites in close proximity to obtain sufficient crosstalk for reliable geolocation signal processing, Eutelsat notes, and crosstalk on an adjacent satellite needs to be within the same frequency range and polarisation as the interference signal on the affected satellite. Even for multi-satellite operators some satellites are isolated in terms of uplink frequency ranges, polarisation and footprint. This, says Eutelsat, is especially true for Ka-band satellites where crosstalk is either not applicable or too small to be measurable.
“Having validated proof of concept, we are confidently deploying the unique one-satellite interference detection system,” said Mark Rawlins, Eutelsat’s director of the Communications System Control Centre. “We are enhancing our ability to localise interfering signals transmitted to our global fleet of satellites so that customers from South America to Asia Pacific can benefit from even more reliable and secure communications. As the first operator to take on board this solution we are adding more weight to our efforts to combat both accidental and deliberate interference.”
