PAGE CONTENTS
Objectives
The objective of the proposed activity is to conduct a study to investigate specific issues related to a UHF transceiver design based on novel techniques. This transceiver shall satisfy the requirements of UHF-based Telecommand- and Telemetry-transmission to Satellites.
This study work is foreseen to produce all required inputs for a full development proposal as a follow-up activity.
The final aim is to develop a hardware product, which is constituted from modular building blocks so that a high degree of adaptability and customization can be reached.
The proposed transceiver is targeted at small LEO satellites.
Surveys are conducted in order to gather the necessary information for establishing requirements based on user needs and for fitting into the regulatory frame conditions. Further, architectural designs are traded-off and a conceptual baseline is elaborated. The transceiver design is based on a Software-Defined-Radio (SDR).
The high level architecture shows the partitioning between the analogue and digital domain. Whereas the analogue part is relying on traditional technology based on components populating a printed circuit board, the digital part is implemented in a field programmable gate array (FPGA).
The allocation of functional blocks within the FPGA is shown hereafter:
Basically the FPGA is in charge of managing all signals on the external bus-interface of the Spacecraft like commands from/to the On-Board Computer, as well as providing the “Digital Baseband Processing”. This includes modulating/ demodulating the Transmit/ Receive-signal up/ down to the IF-level.
Challenges
The definition and trade-off of crucial functions of the baseband processing section (SDR= Software Defined Radio). These functions incorporate signal processing as demodulation and modulation (BPSK, OQPSK and GMSK) as well as the usage of Spread-Spectrum and encryption./p>
Plan
| Kick-Off | 31.10.2010 |
| Midterm Review | 14.01.2011 |
| Preliminary Requirement Review | Dec 2011 |
| Final Review | Jan 2012 |
Current Status
Documents for Final Review were delivered and the study has been concluded.