This question appears in Mumbai University > Satellite Communication and Network subject

Marks: 5 M

Year: May 2014, May 2012

The advantages of satellite communication over terrestrial communication are as follows:

1. Satellite are mainly wide area broadcast media as transmitter antenna may be designed to provide signals to service areas as small as a city or as large as a country.
2. Terrestrial communication is point-to-point whereas Satellites communication is point to multipoint approach.
3. Relatively fast installation. Once satellite is in position, earth station can be installed and communication can be established in days or hours. But terrestrial circuits require time consuming installations.
4. The satellite costs are independent of distance whereas the terrestrial network costs are proportional to distance.
5. The satellite itself is a single repeater. For terrestrial links antennas are located at a specific height to overcome obstacles and also repeaters are to be used in between the links to compensate for path losses.
6. Satellite systems can provide coverage to remote places where terrestrial system fails. For communication between remote areas (hilly terrains, island etc) and the main land satellite communication is the only cost effective option
7. Mobile communication is easy to achieve using satellite communication because of its broader coverage area and its flexibility in connecting mobile vehicles.
8. Satellites have average low operating cost. Manufacturing of satellite is expensive but after that it would operate typically for years.
9. As compared to optical fiber cable where the signal quality changes with the distance travelled by signal through the cable, satellite communication has an advantage that signal quality is independent of distance as long as the two stations fall within the same geographic coverage areas.
10. Wide area of application such as whether forecasting ,search ,navigation, military.