A UEP Method for Imaging Low-Orbit Satellites Based on CCSDS Recommendations

Abstract

Remote sensing satellites allow continuous information acquisition from large areas of the earth and have been intensively applied in a number of applications, from agriculture to defense. A major challenge in remote sensing is that satellite communication systems present bandwidth restrictions and several issues typical of time-variant channels, which justifies the need for signal coding techniques. In that sense, this letter proposes an unequal error protection method for aerospace applications using the recommendations for source and channel coding created by the Consultative Committee for Space Data System (CCSDS) as frameworks. The proposed method makes use of the CCSDS-recommended convolutional code to ensure a channel coding step as low complex as possible, which allows implementation in a wide range of embedded platforms. This letter exploits the natural data division delivered by the compressor to unequally protect the information. The proposed method, which relies on a multiobjective optimization problem, allows one to find rate arrangements that minimize the distortion of the received image for a given value of an average coding rate within a granular range. The system performance is evaluated over an additive white Gaussian noise channel model. The obtained results show that the proposed method presents several advantages over an equal error protection strategy, and paves the way for scenarios with stringent energy and bandwidth constraints.