Solutions — Satellite Communications Test
From component verification to in-orbit monitoring — the whole satellite test chain
Rohde & Schwarz covers payload, user terminal, in-orbit and ground station testing in one portfolio, supporting LEO/MEO/GEO constellations, 5G NTN and multi-constellation GNSS verification, so that aerospace, telecommunications and defense engineers in Taiwan can shorten development and certification.
The core satellite test problems of the NewSpace era
The NewSpace era has reset the technical bar for satellite test: small satellites built in volume, dense LEO constellations, 5G/6G NTN integration, and the digitalization of ground stations together with the cyber threats that follow it, leave engineers with a level of complexity they have not had to handle before.
- A LEO satellite's visibility window lasts only a few minutes, so the test system has to be heavily automated to complete payload performance verification and health monitoring inside a single pass
- Characterizing electronically steerable array (ESA) and phased array (PAA) antennas and calibrating their beams is an involved procedure that conventional test methods no longer cover
- A regenerative payload hosts part or all of the 5G gNB functionality, so the end-to-end NTN test chain spans both TS 38.181 conformance and over-the-air measurement
- High throughput satellites (HTS) call for more analysis bandwidth and higher modulation complexity, and the measurement equipment has to keep pace with the latest modulation standards such as DVB-S2X
- Ground stations face 5G C-band coexistence interference and spectrum management pressure, as well as the intrusion, jamming and spoofing threats that come with internet exposure
- LEO Doppler compensation: a low-earth-orbit satellite reaches a relative velocity of up to 7.8 km/s, producing a Doppler shift of as much as ±200 kHz. The bandwidth and sweep settings of an R&S SMW200A (with the matching GNSS and baseband options) or an R&S SMBV100B are used to simulate that shift in real time inside the limited visibility window and to verify receiver tracking performance
- Simultaneous dual-band measurement: Ku+Ka or Ka+Q simultaneous test needs two vector analyzers (two FSW units, or an FSW plus an FSWX) locked to a common external 10 MHz / PPS reference, together with the external mixer option R&S FSW-B21 and the matching R&S FS-Z external mixers for each band. Without that shared reference, group delay differences and phase offsets make inter-carrier interference very hard to localize
Complete satellite test application coverage
From component characterization through system AIT verification to in-orbit monitoring, R&S solutions cover the test requirements of the entire satellite life cycle.
Satellite payload and bus test
Covers RF and microwave components (mixers, frequency converters, LNAs, LNBs, power amplifiers, VCOs), communications subsystems, antenna subsystems and power supply test, including thermal vacuum (TVAC) environmental verification, and supports regenerative payloads with on-board signal processing as well as end-to-end 5G gNB communications link test.
R&S technical documentation
Satellite user terminal test
Supports development and production verification of BGAN, VSAT, military, SBB, FBB and Iridium user terminals, and covers Satcom on the Move (SOTM) testing for land vehicles, maritime platforms and airborne systems.
R&S technical documentation
In-orbit test (IOT)
Covers overall link MER/EVM measurement, group delay measurement over long distances, EIRP measurement, uncoded BER test, Doppler effect analysis, up- and downlink attenuation measurement, link quality monitoring by the C/N method and spectrum monitoring, with particular attention to fast testing inside the short visibility windows of LEO and MEO constellations.
R&S technical documentation
Ground station and teleport test
Provides maintenance calibration of ground station equipment, antenna and cable measurement with distance-to-fault location, spectrum monitoring and interference localization, 5G C-band coexistence test, antenna pointing and link quality measurement, and extends to network security — countering jamming, spoofing and IoT vulnerabilities — and to the protection of encrypted communications.
R&S technical documentation
5G NTN (non-terrestrial network) satellite test
Supports both architectures: the transparent payload, in which the satellite acts as a remote radio unit for a ground-based gNB, and the regenerative payload, which hosts gNB functionality on board. Test items include phased array antenna (PAA) characterization, direct-to-cell device performance, modulation accuracy, NPR/ACLR distortion and spurious emissions; the ATS1800C provides a 3GPP compliant OTA chamber.
R&S technical documentation
GNSS positioning and navigation test
Provides multi-frequency, all-constellation GNSS simulation (GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/BeiDou) and supports eCall/ERA-GLONASS module test, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test, multipath and obscuration simulation, multi-antenna receiver test (CRPA beamforming and nulling), NB-IoT Rel.14 positioning and LPV approach test.
R&S technical documentation
5G and satellite C-band coexistence test
Simulates the case in which a 5G signal drives the low noise block (LNB) of a satellite earth station into saturation, and tests the performance limit at component and system level; quantifies the interference that the EIRP/TRP of a 5G active antenna system causes to the fixed satellite service (FSS), and looks ahead to coexistence above 6 GHz in the Ka, Q and V bands.
R&S technical documentation
Electronically steered array (ESA) antenna and OTA test
Covers TRx module characterization, beamforming verification, phase coherence measurement and OTA test of digital beamforming systems. The ATS1800C OTA chamber, built on a CATR design, measures the over-the-air characteristics of 5G FR2 mmWave phased array antennas, for development and production verification of very high throughput satellite (VHTS) and LEO constellation ground terminals.
R&S technical documentationCore R&S instruments for satellite communications test
KanTek Technology supplies every instrument below in Taiwan, with sales, calibration and technical support; instrument rental is launching soon.
R&S®FSW
High-end signal and spectrum analyzer (up to 85 GHz, 8.3 GHz analysis bandwidth) for payload EVM, NPR/ACLR, group delay and in-orbit link quality measurement
Full specifications
R&S®FSWX
Signal and spectrum analyzer for satellite in-orbit test and signal analysis, with wideband satellite signal capture
Full specifications
R&S®SMW200A
High-end vector signal generator with multi-constellation, multi-band GNSS simulation and NTN satellite signal generation, for in-orbit test and C-band coexistence test
Full specifications
R&S®SMBV100B
Vector signal generator and single- or multi-frequency GNSS simulator for GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/BeiDou, used for multipath scenario simulation and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) verification
Full specifications
R&S®CMX500
5G one-box signaling tester with the CMsquares web interface, for end-to-end TS 38.181 conformance testing of 5G NTN infrastructure and for direct-to-cell device verification
Full specifications
R&S®ATS1800C
Compact, 3GPP compliant OTA chamber (CATR) for over-the-air testing of 5G NR mmWave NTN signals and for phased array antenna measurement
Full specifications
R&S®ZNH
Handheld vector network analyzer for on-site maintenance calibration of ground station antennas and cables and for distance-to-fault location
Full specificationsR&S track record in satellite communications test
The cases below are published by Rohde & Schwarz; illustrative cases are labelled as such.
Airbus Helicopters — LPV approach hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) verification
Airbus Helicopters S.A.S. uses the R&S SMBV100A vector signal generator for LPV (localizer performance with vertical guidance) approach testing, giving it a hardware-in-the-loop solution on every test bench. Ramiro Rodriguez, Expert in Avionic Integration Means, who led the integration, puts it this way: “The R&S SMBV100A is a very versatile and powerful tool. The support Rohde & Schwarz provided to fine tune the vector signal generator to our needs was awesome. We now have an affordable solution to test LPV approaches with hardware in the loop (HiL) at all our test benches.”
Read the originalTaiwanese VSAT terminal vendor — ATS1800C OTA certification (anonymized case)
Illustrative caseCustomer details are anonymized under a non-disclosure agreement. Once an NDA is in place we can share the indirect verification route against TASA (Taiwan Space Agency) low-earth-orbit ground equipment test requirements, or a redacted copy of the NCC frequency approval, for procurement evaluation.
A Taiwanese telecommunications equipment vendor moving into low-earth-orbit ground equipment had won authorization from an international satellite service provider and needed Ku/Ka-band RF performance verification and 5G NTN conformance testing for its own VSAT user terminal. On KanTek Technology's recommendation it procured an R&S FSW signal analyzer and an R&S SMW200A vector signal generator, and completed the phased array antenna measurements in an ATS1800C OTA chamber, passing certification to TS 38.181 and entering the Asia-Pacific satellite broadband market. KanTek Technology supported instrument selection, application training, calibration and maintenance throughout, so that the test flow ran from development verification to formal certification in one pass.
Key test specifications and standards
The specifications and standards below are taken from Rohde & Schwarz documentation and represent the core measurement requirements of satellite communications test.
| Parameter | Value / range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| FSW analysis bandwidth | Up to 8.3 GHz (internal) | R&S FSW43/50/67/85 models |
| FSW frequency range | 2 Hz – 85 GHz | FSW8 through FSW85 |
| FSW phase noise | typ. –133 dBc (1 Hz) | 10 GHz carrier, 10 kHz offset |
| C band (US downlink) | 3.7 GHz – 4.2 GHz | 5G and satellite FSS coexistence test band |
| C band (European downlink) | 3.4 GHz – 4.2 GHz | 5G and satellite FSS coexistence test band |
| EMC standards (payload) | MIL-STD-461 / ECSS / IEC 61000 / GSFC-STD / AIAA | Satellite payload EMC test |
| 5G NTN standards | 3GPP TS 38.108 / TS 38.181 / TS 38.141 | Satellite access node minimum RF characteristics and conformance testing |
| Satellite broadcast standards | DVB-S2 / DVB-S2X / DVB-RCS2 | Modulation, demodulation and signal quality verification |
| GNSS constellations | GPS / GLONASS / Galileo / BeiDou | Multi-constellation simulation on the R&S SMBV100B / SMW200A |
| Ground station interoperability | DIFI Consortium (digital IF interoperability) | Ground station digitalization and virtualization |
Local engineering support, end to end
The industry partners who rely on KanTek
Official R&S technical resources
Every link below goes to the Rohde & Schwarz Taiwan website, for current product specifications, application notes and solution white papers.
- Satellite payload and bus testing
- Satellite user terminal testing
- Satellite in-orbit testing
- Ground station testing and security
- 5G NTN satellite testing
- Positioning, navigation and GNSS testing
- Coexistence of 5G and satellite services in the C band
- Webinar: DVB-S2/S2X and DVB-RCS2 testing
- White paper: mastering the challenges of NewSpace satellite constellations
- Pocket guide: satellite technologies
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From first enquiry to long-term support
A five-step process, so every measurement requirement gets a precise, properly specified answer.
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1. Application consultation
Tell us the application and the measurements you need, and we suggest a first shortlist.
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2. Requirement review
We work through the specifications and the budget to settle the right instrument configuration.
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3. Proof of concept / evaluation loan
An on-site demonstration or an evaluation unit, so you confirm the performance on your own signals.
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4. Purchase agreement and delivery
Quotation confirmed and the order placed, then factory stock scheduled against your required date.
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5. Calibration and long-term support
We arrange calibration to ISO/IEC 17025 through a partner laboratory, plus repair and ongoing technical advice.