Edit(2017/09): this article was written early in my PhD, with little knowledge of actual systems. It happens that the Uplink/Downlink frequency bands are not so linked together. I might update this article later, or publish a new one with more accurate assumptions.

System view of a DVB-S2/RCS2 satellite. The Forward link uses DVB-S2, the return link the DVB-RCS2

Let ΔFFL\Delta F_{FL}, ΔFDL\Delta F_{DL} and ΔFUL\Delta F_{UL} be the Frequency bands for, respectively, the whole forward link (i.e. Gateway → Satellite → Users), downlink (Satellite → Users) and uplink (Gateway → Satellite).

In the simple scheme where a satellite covers a full continent with a single beam (traditional TV Broadcast model) we have this relation:

ΔFDL=ΔFUL=12ΔFFL\Delta F_{DL} = \Delta F_{UL} = \frac{1}{2} \Delta F_{FL}

Multi-spot beam satellites allow to have different coverage beam, where the same frequencies can be used and not interfere with each other (the beams are sufficiently well focused and spaced).

Ka-sat multi-spot beam coverage of europe

In this case, a frequency can be used kk times, where k is the frequency reuse factor.

For example, in a 4-color distribution scheme, with 120 spots, there is a theoretical reuse factor of 20. In reality, the reuse factor is closer to 12 than 20, but that's another topic.

In the case where the reuse factor is k=2k=2 (meaning that a frequency is used twice over the whole coverage), taking the hypothesis of full use of the bandwidth over each spot beam, the necessary bandwidth in the uplink would be: ΔFUL=2ΔFDL\Delta F_{UL} = 2\Delta F_{DL}

Extending this to kk, we have: ΔFUL=kΔFDL\Delta F_{UL} = k\Delta F_{DL}

Provided that the global bandwidth for this forward link is constant ΔFFL=cst\Delta F_{FL}=cst, we have the following relation of the uplink bandwidth according to the reuse factor: ΔFUL=k(ΔFFLΔFUL)\Delta F_{UL} = k(\Delta F_{FL} - \Delta F_{UL}) ΔFUL=kk+1ΔFFL\Delta F_{UL} = \frac{k}{k+1}\Delta F_{FL}

Evolution of the uplink-to-forward bandwidth ratio according to the reuse factor k Bandwidth repartition with frequency reuse, without over-provisionning


Sources:

  1. Jean-Baptiste Dupé Thesis
  2. Second Generation DVB Interactive Satellite System (DVB-RCS2); Part 2: Lower Layers for Satellite standard