An illustration of potential interference between a GSO system (blue) and an NGSO system (red).
In summer 2022, I lead a research team to develop an algorithm to calculate interference between satellite systems. We specifically investigated the Equivalent Power Flux Density (EPFD) metric used by the International Telecommunications Union to quantify radio regulations. We wrote an academic paper detailing the EPFD metric and our algorithm's method, which is currently under consideration. Through this project I learned a lot about orbital mechanics and improved my MATLAB simulation skills.
Despite EPFD being a crucial metric to quantify satellite interference, documentation of the metric and its calculations methods are very rare. A central goal of our project was to provide more accessible documentation of the math behind EPFD. In addition, the two existing algorithms to calculate EPFD are closed source, so another goal of this project was to create an open source algorithm that calculates the EPFD between systems to better understand the calculation process.
In this project, I worked on using MATLAB's Satellite Communications toolbox to simulate the interference between satellite systems. I also worked on implementing the ITU's EPFD calculation process in MATLAB. I wrote the research paper on our findings in LaTeX.
Results comparing our algorithm's EPFD results (black) to existing closed source algorithms (blue). Both results fall under the ITU's interference limits (red), so both algorithms validate this satellite system.
This research was done as a part of the Olin Satellite + Spectrum Technology and Policy group, an aerospace research lab at Olin College. The EPFD GitHub can be found here.