In the ACE radio environment, SATCOM simulates the uplink-downlink relay over a satellite of signals transmitted from a radio. This includes the simulation of mode-dependent delays. In ACE Studio, the Satellite component represents a communications satellite and is set to relay signals from the radios configured in SATCOM mode.
Realistic simulation of satellite parameters include delays based on SATCOM sub-modes, world position, and uplink and downlink bands.
The ACE software must have available credits to add the Satellite component (750 credits).
The project is setup with radios that are on and in-tune.
Uplink - The base frequency of the satellite uplink band in Hertz.
Downlink - The base frequency of the satellite downlink band in Hertz.
Passband - Passband defines the frequency range of the satellite uplink and downlink bands in Hertz. The range of a band is always from the Link Frequency to the Passband + Link Frequency.
Delay mode - This sets the mode-based delays in ms. The fixed delay will override all modal delays and force a single delay to be used.
Domain - This specifies the domain in which the satellite will be active. Leaving this field blank will cause it to act as a wild card and satellite will be active in all domains.
Protocol ID - In the Satellite component, the Protocol ID affects the DIS ID of the temporary transmitters setup to retransmit the signal. Set to DIS: for proper functioning in a DIS network.
Open the Commplan and select the "Net" folder. For the net(s) that are using SATCOM, use a waveform with "SATCOM" set as the mode and use the SATCOM column to apply a sub-mode such as DAMA5k, DAMA25k, etc.
Once a radio has a fill and net with the proper mode and SATCOM sub-mode, set the frequency and transmit frequency to match the appropriate downlink and uplink frequency bands.
A SATCOM radio with a transmit frequency that is in the satellite's uplink band will cause the satellite to start publishing the relay transmitter. This is visible in the Radio Monitor and indicates that both the radio and satellite are configured correctly.