Digital Commons Network^™

A Comparative Analysis Of The Iridium® And Globalstar® Satellite Transmission Paths, Kenneth E. Crowe

Theses and Dissertations

Globalstar and Iridium will provide valuable global communications assets for business, humanitarian aid and military operations. However, the level of coverage and the quality of the transmission path of these systems are strongly dependent on the latitude of the user and, due to their orbital characteristics, both systems provide reduced levels of coverage at low latitudes. Additionally, the L- and S-Band frequencies utilized by these systems are prone to ionospheric interference at low latitudes. The results of extensive simulation analysis indicate that the Globalstar constellation architecture provides a considerably better transmission path than Iridium's in several important areas, including path …