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Low Earth Orbit (LEO) System Design for Positioning, Communications, and...
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Low Earth Orbit (LEO) System Design for Positioning, Communications, and Sensing

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Navigation and Positioning".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (24 March 2023) | Viewed by 12765

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Elena Simona Lohan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Tampere University (TAU), P.O.Box 553, FIN-33101 Tampere, Finland
Interests: wireless localization; tracking and navigation; signal processing for wireless communications; wearable computing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Emanuela Falletti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
LINKS Foundation, 10138 Torino, Italy
Interests: GNSS; anti-spoofing and anti-jamming solutions; LEO-PNT
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Jaan Praks

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, Aalto University, FI-00076 AALTO, Finland
Interests: small satellite missions; space technology; microwave earth observation; SAR remote sensing; hyperspectral remote sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Gonzalo Seco-Granados

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
IEEC-CERES, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
Interests: precise and authentic user location; GNSS; LEO-PNT; interference monitoring

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites are increasingly populating our sky, belonging both to mega-constellations such as Amazon Kuiper, SpaceX Starlink, OneWeb, etc. and to smaller constellations and cubesat constellations. A variety of future applications, ranging from broadband and IoT communications to navigation and Earth observation, are expected to rely on LEO satellites. Active effort worldwide is being put into designing and building new LEO constellations, as well as towards creating new services and applications based on existing constellations. This call for papers invites technical contributions related to LEO system design and applications, including (but not limited to):

  • signal-in-space/space-segment design for LEO;
  • ground segment design considerations;
  • receiver characteristics and receiver design for LEO systems;
  • linear and non-linear modulations for LEO;
  • code-based and Doppler-shift-based positioning with LEO;
  • LEO-PNT;
  • Integration of LEO and cellular (5G/6G, etc.) systems;
  • GNSS–LEO integration aspects;
  • RF convergence in future LEO systems.

Prpf. Dr. Elena Simona Lohan
Prof. Dr. Emanuela Falletti
Dr. Jaan Praks
Prof. Dr. Gonzalo Seco-Granados
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 3790 KiB  
Article
Attitude Determination System for a Cubesat Experiencing Eclipse
by Kesaobaka Mmopelwa, Teddy Tumisang Ramodimo, Oduetse Matsebe and Bokamoso Basutli
Sensors 2023, 23(20), 8549; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23208549 - 18 Oct 2023
Viewed by 961
Abstract
In the context of Kalman filters, the predicted error covariance matrix Pk+1 and measurement noise covariance matrix R are used to represent the uncertainty of state variables and measurement noise, respectively. However, in real-world situations, these matrices may vary with [...] Read more.
In the context of Kalman filters, the predicted error covariance matrix Pk+1 and measurement noise covariance matrix R are used to represent the uncertainty of state variables and measurement noise, respectively. However, in real-world situations, these matrices may vary with time due to measurement faults. To address this issue in CubeSat attitude estimation, an adaptive extended Kalman filter has been proposed that can dynamically estimate the predicted error covariance matrix and measurement noise covariance matrix using an expectation-maximization approach. Simulation experiments have shown that this algorithm outperforms existing methods in terms of attitude estimation accuracy, particularly in sunlit and shadowed phases of the orbit, with the same filtering parameters and initial conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Low Earth Orbit (LEO) System Design for Positioning, Communications, and Sensing)
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18 pages, 771 KiB  
Article
Direction-of-Arrival (DoA) Estimation Performance for Satellite Applications in a Multipath Environment with Rician Fading and Spatial Correlation
by Mutmainnah Hasib, Sithamparanathan Kandeepan, Wayne S. T. Rowe and Akram Al-Hourani
Sensors 2023, 23(12), 5458; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23125458 - 9 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1688
Abstract
Direction-of-arrival (DoA) estimation methods are highly versatile and find extensive applications in satellite communication. DoA methods are employed across a range of orbits, from low Earth orbits (LEO) to geostationary Earth orbits (GEO). They serve multiple applications, including altitude determination, geolocation and estimation [...] Read more.
Direction-of-arrival (DoA) estimation methods are highly versatile and find extensive applications in satellite communication. DoA methods are employed across a range of orbits, from low Earth orbits (LEO) to geostationary Earth orbits (GEO). They serve multiple applications, including altitude determination, geolocation and estimation accuracy, target localization, and relative and collaborative positioning. This paper provides a framework for modeling the DoA angle in satellite communications with respect to the elevation angle. The proposed approach employs a closed-form expression that incorporates various factors, such as the antenna boresight angle, satellite and Earth station positions, and the altitude parameters of the satellite stations. By leveraging this formulation, the work accurately calculates the Earth station’s elevation angle and effectively models the DoA angle. To the authors’ knowledge, this contribution is unique and has not been previously addressed in the available literature. Furthermore, this paper studies the impact of spatial correlation in the channel on well-known DoA estimation techniques. As a significant part of this contribution, the authors introduce a signal model incorporating correlation in satellite communication. Although selected studies have presented spatial signal correlation models in satellite communications to analyze the performance metrics, such as the bit error or symbol error probability, outage probability, and ergodic capacity, this work stands out by presenting and adapting a correlation model in the signal specifically for studying DoA estimations. Accordingly, this paper evaluates DoA estimation performance using root mean square error (RMSE) measurements for different satellite communication link conditions (uplink and downlink) through extensive Monte Carlo simulations. The simulation’s performance is evaluated by comparing it with the Cramer–Rao lower bound (CRLB) performance metric under additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) conditions, i.e., thermal noise. The simulation results demonstrate that incorporating a spatial signal correlation model for DoA estimations significantly improves RMSE performance in satellite systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Low Earth Orbit (LEO) System Design for Positioning, Communications, and Sensing)
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20 pages, 6049 KiB  
Article
Practical Use of Starlink Downlink Tones for Positioning
by Nabil Jardak and Ronan Adam
Sensors 2023, 23(6), 3234; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23063234 - 18 Mar 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 8373
Abstract
The large availability of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite systems makes them useful beyond their original purposes, such as in positioning, where their signals can be passively used. In order to determine their potential for this purpose, newly deployed systems need to be [...] Read more.
The large availability of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite systems makes them useful beyond their original purposes, such as in positioning, where their signals can be passively used. In order to determine their potential for this purpose, newly deployed systems need to be investigated. This is the case with the Starlink system, which has a large constellation and is advantageous for positioning. It transmits signals in the 10.7–12.7 GHz band, the same as that of geostationary satellite television. Signals in this band are typically received using a low-noise block down-converter (LNB) and a parabolic antenna reflector. Regarding opportunistic use of these signals in small vehicle navigation, the dimensions of the parabolic reflector and its directional gain are not practical for tracking many satellites simultaneously. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of tracking Starlink downlink tones for opportunistic positioning in a practical situation, when signals are received without a parabolic reflector. For this purpose, an inexpensive universal LNB is selected, and then signal tracking is performed to determine the signal and frequency measurement quality, as well as the number of satellites that can be tracked simultaneously. Next, the tone measurements are aggregated to handle tracking interruptions and to recover the traditional Doppler shift model. After that, the use of measurements in multi-epoch positioning is defined, and its performance discussed as a function of the relevant measurement rate and the required multi-epoch interval duration. The results showed promising positioning which can be improved by selecting a better-quality LNB. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Low Earth Orbit (LEO) System Design for Positioning, Communications, and Sensing)
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