HBBCL Satellite Communication and Positioning Studies

Overview of Satellite Communication and Positioning Research at Harvard:

Advances in satellite technology has made it possible to use satellites to provide efficient and reliable communication to users across a wide geographical area. However, integration of satellite networks into other modalities such as optical fiber, terrestrial wireless, and other networks are not well studied.

The development of an efficient architecture for such a multi-modal network will provide a new medium for the internet, and has great potential for providing diversity for sensity and military applications. However, efficient use of satellite resources require optimization of performance versus energy efficiency and reliability over a time-varying channel, for a multitude of users with various QoS requirements.

Advances in electronics technology and government policy deregulations have made GPS technology available to users at cheaper costs and higher performance. However, few studies have addressed the performance of GPS in a multipath environment, for example for navigation in urban areas.

We have identified several key research problems:

Channel Measurement and Modeling for GPS in Multipath Environments:

GPS positioning and navigation in urban areas is an area of tremendous potential applications. We are developing a measurement campaign to characterize the performance of GPS systems for urban navigation.



Energy Efficient Protocols for Satellite Communication:

Satellite systems must be able to provide variable QoS for different users in a time-varying channel. This must be done in an energy-efficient manner.