Advantages and disadvantages L,S,C,X,Ku,K,Ka Frequency Bands
This page covers advantages and disadvantages of L Band, S Band, C Band, X Band, Ku Band, K Band and Ka Band. This guide on L, S, C, X, Ku, K, Ka Frequency Bands advantages and disadvantages is very useful to compare these frequency bands.
From the figure-1, following merits and demerits can easily be derived for the different frequency bands.
Advantages of L Band
Following are the advantages of L Band:
➨less interference from rain fading.
➨Cheaper equipments
➨Smaller size antennas
Disadvantages of L Band
Following are the disadvantages of L Band:
➨Very small bandwidth is allocated for L-band in Inmarsat.
Frequencies from 1.3 to 1.7 GHz is allocated.
It is very costly spectrum due to scarcity of spectrum.
Advantages of S Band
Following are the advantages of S Band:
➨It is less susceptible to rain fading compare to Ku and Ka bands.
Disadvantages of S Band
Following are the disadvantages of S Band:
➨It supports lower throughput.
➨It has narrow band spectrum.
➨Antenna sizes are larger.
Advantages of C Band
Following are the advantages of C Band:
➨It has wider and global coverage.
➨It has lower propagation delay.
➨It has less attenuation compare to other bands.
Disadvantages of C Band
Following are the disadvantages of C Band:
➨Antenna size is large.
➨Throughput is less compare to other bands.
Advantages of X Band
Following are the advantages of X Band:
➨Rain fading is dominant in radio frequencies above 10 GHz.
Hence X Band does not have much interference from rain fading compare to
other higher frequency bands such as Ku band and Ka band.
➨It supports smaller antennas.
➨It can handle higher power.
➨X-band supports detection of smaller particles in a radar.
➨Cost of X-band equipments are less.
Disadvantages of X Band
Following are the disadvantages of X Band:
➨It has more attenuation due to rain, snow, ice etc.
➨In radar, it supports very limited clear air measurements.
Advantages of Ku Band
Following are the advantages of Ku Band:
➨Antenna size is smaller.
➨Provides wide beam coverage compare to other bands.
➨It provides higher throughput compare to lower bands and less than Ka band.
Disadvantages of Ku Band
Following are the disadvantages of Ku Band:
➨It also suffers from rain fading due to absorption of EM waves by water droplets.
This is higher than C band.
Advantages of K Band
Following are the advantages of K Band:
➨It supports high throughput compare to Ku band.
➨It supports antennas with smaller sizes compare to Ku band.
➨K band is less susceptible to rain fading compare to Ka band.
Disadvantages of K Band
Following are the disadvantages of K Band:
➨K band frequencies have high atmospheric attenuation and hence
it can not be used for long distance communication. It has more susceptibility to rain attenuation
compare to Ku band.
Advantages of Ka Band
Following are the advantages of Ka Band:
➨Provides high throughput beams.
➨Delivers high bandwidth communication.
➨Provides high power for transmission.
➨Equipments are smaller and hence are easy to
install and maintain.
➨Ka band makes it possible to transmit higher data over
same bandwidth compare to Ku band.
Disadvantages of Ka Band
Following are the disadvantages of Ka Band:
➨Due to absorption of higher frequency EM waves by water droplets,
Ka band suffers from rain fading.
➨Propagation delay is higher due to double hop.
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