Thorsten Kostulski
Dipl.-Ing. (UAS Aachen, Germany)
Doctoral Candidate, Faculty of Engineering
Thorsten is a current doctoral research student in the field of satellite communication systems, with a specific interest in Ka band (20/30 GHz) propagation experiments over low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. He has been affiliated with UTS Engineering in various roles, first as an undergraduate exchange student in 1999/2000 and later as a research assistant. After completing his graduate degree in Telecommunications Engineering in Aachen/Germany in 2002, Thorsten started working as a full-time Research Engineer (systems and RF hardware) in the Cooperative Research Centre for Satellite Systems (CRCSS) at UTS. He contributed to the final-stage design and the commissioning of the fast-tracking Ka band earth station which had been developed at UTS since 1998 to communicate with the Australian Federation Satellite (FedSat).
Between 2003 and 2005, Thorsten was responsible for the operation of this earth station, conducting almost 100 Ka band communication experiments via FedSat. He collected valuable atmospheric attenuation data and gained much expertise in high-precision LEO satellite tracking. The success of the project led to the commencement of his doctoral candidature in 2004 under the supervision of the former director of the CRCSS, A/Prof Sam Reisenfeld. Thanks to the unusual combination of Ka band propagation experiments and LEO microsatellite tracking, his national and international publications were amongst the first in this commercially emerging field and were received with great interest by the community. The analysis of the collected data is ongoing and will contribute significantly to his dissertation.
Thorsten also possesses some prior work experience in the fields of biomedical engineering (Bisping Cardiology) and RF/optoelectronic III-V semiconductor production technologies (Aixtron AG). Concurrent with his PhD candidature, he has been involved in academic activities in the Faculty of Engineering. He has worked as a tutor, lecturer and subject coordinator in various Core, Telecommunications and Electrical Engineering subjects.
He has won several awards during his career. After receiving the University Medal for his undergraduate degree, he accepted the Australian Government’s “International Postgraduate Research Scholarship” (IPRS) in 2004 to study towards his PhD at UTS. He also won the “Best Presentation” and “Best Poster” awards at the 2005 UTS Engineering Research Showcase.
Ka Band Propagation Experiments on the Australian Low Earth Orbit Microsatellite 'FedSat':
The main focus of Thorsten’s research is the experimental collection and analysis of unique Ka band propagation data, which will help to design future satellite-based high-speed communication systems. The commercially emerging Ka band suffers from severe signal attenuation during rain events, and the design and viability of future satellite systems depends on accurate modelling of these conditions. In contrast to geostationary satellites, LEO experiments allow the collection of data during different weather conditions and over varying elevation angles, all during one pass, which is of particular interest to researchers. This approach poses the challenges of precision spatial and Doppler frequency tracking during a very short time window, all of which had to be solved for the UTS earth station design and for the successful operation over 3 years.