Abstract
Beam hopping (BH) and precoding are two trending technologies for high-throughput satellite (HTS) systems. While BH enables the flexible adaptation of the offered capacity to the heterogeneous demand, precoding aims at boosting the spectral efficiency. In this study, we consider an HTS system that employs BH in conjunction with precoding in an attempt to bring the benefits of both in one. In particular, we propose the concept of cluster hopping (CH), where a set of adjacent beams are simultaneously illuminated with the same frequency resource. On this line, we propose an efficient time–space illumination pattern design, where we determine the set of clusters that shall be illuminated simultaneously at each hopping event along with the dwelling time. The CH time–space illumination pattern design formulation is shown to be theoretically intractable due to the combinatorial nature of the problem and the impact of the actual illumination design on the resulting interference. For this, we make some design decisions on the beam–cluster design that open the door to a less complex still well-performing solution. Supporting results based on numerical simulations are provided which validate the effectiveness of the proposed CH concept and a time–space illumination pattern design with respect to benchmark schemes.
Highlights
The first generation of broadband multibeam satellites was launched in the 2000s, with the main objective to deliver internet services to people who had no access to faster forms of internet connectivity (ViaSat Inc., 2018)
The trends in the satellite communications industry are evolving towards more advanced antenna architectures, for example, phased array fed reflector (PAFR), whose phase response may differ from conventional single-feed-per-beam architecture or the Direct Radiating Array (DRA) considered in this study
Focusing on the convergence of both techniques, we have proposed the so-called cluster hopping (CH) concept, which seamlessly combines these two paradigms and utilizes the strong points of each one
Summary
The first generation of broadband multibeam satellites was launched in the 2000s, with the main objective to deliver internet services to people who had no access to faster forms of internet connectivity (ViaSat Inc., 2018). From frequency/bandwidth to power allocation and coverage, the forthcoming generation of commercial satellite communication payloads offer enhanced flexibility to dynamically satisfy the customers’ demands (Kisseleff et al, 2020; NetWorld 2020, 2019). Such reconfigurable satellite systems are clamored by operators and manufacturers to be one of the most groundbreaking. Satellite-Precoded Cluster Hopping evolutions of satellite communications with an impact on lowering mission costs and enabling satellite systems to become more agile and responsive to market needs (SES, 2020; AIRBUS, 2021) These future satellite architectures are expected to offer terabit per second in-orbit capacity when and where needed. This study focuses on two of the most promising disruptive techniques to tackle these specific challenges: linear precoding and timeflexible beam hopping
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