Basic difference between satellite and terrestrial communication system?

Answer 1

Satellite microwave transmission systems are similar to terrestrial microwave systems except that the signal travels from a ground station on Earth to a satellite and back to another ground station on Earth, thus achieving much greater distances than earthbound line-of-sight transmissions.

Microwave communication requires line of sight and uses towers to transmit information, and hence have relatively smaller area coverage (generally 25-30 miles). One tower receives a signal, amplifies it, and sends it to the next tower. The microwave systems have the capability to carry large amount of data both digital and analog at high speed, and are mostly used for the transmission of telephone and television signals.

Satellite communication covers a wider area due to its location, and is more useful for isolated locations (locations surrounded by oceans, mountains, or other geographic limitations)

Answer 2

RF or Radio Frequency is a term that is often used to describe the number of times per second or oscillation of an electromagnet radiation. Anything between 3Hz and 300GHz is still refered to as RF waves, but they are subdivided depending on the actual frequency. Microwave is the general term used to describe RF waves that starts from UHF (Ultra High Frequency) to EHF (Extremely High Frequency) which covers all frequencies between 300Mhz to 300GHz, lower frequencies are refered to as radio waves while higher frequencies are called millimeter waves.

People have found a lot of uses for radio frequency waves, most of which are in the field of communications. Radio waves are generally used for AM/FM radio stations due to the relative ease of using these types of waves. Microwaves which occupy the upper spectrum of RF waves have an even wider range of applications. Starting from the common microwave oven that uses microwaves to heat and cook our food, to military weapons that can heat the skin of enemy forces. But the most common use of microwaves are still in communications.

1. Microwave is just a subset of the RF range
2. RF covers 3 Hz to 300 GHz while Microwaves occupies the higher frequencies at 300MHz to 3GHz
3. RF waves have a lot of applications
4. RF is more commonly related to AM/FM transmission while Microwaves are used in wider applications like heating and high-bandwidth data transmission systems
5. Microwaves can also be used to transmit power from one point to another

Answer 3

bandwidth is greater than terastrial