K-band

There are a number of definitions of the K band, which designate it as 10.9 36 GHz (IEEE RDE, General) or 18 27 GHz (Standard 521 Radar) or 12.4 40 GHz (Old English), etc. The K band is further subdivided into the Ku and Ka bands, which are again further subdivided. Here we refer to the K band as the IEEE band 10.9 36 GHz and the technology being considered here refers to the K band above 20 GHz.

There have been a number of experiments conducted in Japan, Europe and the USA since the 1970s. The K band has been, in fact, in regular use in Japan since 1970. The experiments include Japanese, ETS 11 (34 GHz propagation experiment), CS 2 and CS 3 (Ka band communications experiment; Italian SIRIO (18 GHz ) and ITALSAT (K, band technology demonstrator); ESA!s Olympus (K,, band technology demonstrator and 20 40 60 GHz propagation experiments); the USA!s ATS series of satellites (K, band propagation experiment) and ACTS experiment (technology demonstrator, including mobile communications). These experiments have collectively demonstrated new K,, band technologies and concepts such as K, band regenerative transponders, multiple hopping spot beams, K, band channel characterization and adaptive rain fade control systems, forming the basis of many K, band proposals. These technologies have formed the basis of several proposed constellations to provide world wide multimedia, bandwidth on demand type services envisaged in the next decade