Study of Future Antenna Technologies for Shipboard Satellite Communications

摘要

The purpose of this report is to document a study commissioned to DefenceResearch Establishment Ottawa (DREO) by Director Maritime Ship Support (DMS S) in the area of future naval satellite communications (satcom) for the Canadian Navy. The study investigated possible technology gaps in the area of satellite antenna systems for military applications, concentrating on the difficulty of installing large antenna systems on smaller size ships. With the advent of numerous new satellite services, both commercial and military, and the merging of the communications media (information highway), the demand for more satcom capacity on ships is increasing rapidly. Because of the limitations in size and weight, several bands and several beams could be integrated together in a single antenna platform. All these signals would be connected (remotely) to various terminals dispersed across the ship. Reflector antennas and phased array antennas are the two main technologies to help achieve this goal. The present state-of-the-art for reflectors and phased arrays in the area of multiband and/or multibeam is not mature yet. The major limitations are cost and complexity. However, since this area has become popular only recently, there is ample room for rapid improvements and possible breakthroughs.