PN regenerative ranging and its compatibility with telecommand and telemetry signals

This paper investigates the performance of a satellite communication system which the onboard receiver regenerates the uplink pseudonoise (PN) ranging sequence. Using phase modulation, the PN ranging signal is transmitted together with the telecommand signal in the uplink and the telemetry signal in the downlink. Various ranging sequences are taken into consideration and tested prior to final international adoption. The reciprocal interference among telemetry, telecommand, and ranging signals is evaluated in terms of bit error rate and ranging phase acquisition time.