On Ground Beam Forming Network and Multiuser Detection Proof of Concept

Objectives

The project aims at designing, developing and testing a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Test-Bed of an On-Ground Beam-Forming (OGBF) and Multi User Detection (MUD) system to demonstrate the feasibility of such technology for space telecommunication application.

The activity will demonstrate the obtainable improvements in performance with the introduction of OGBF/MUD with respect to a conventional on-board beamforming satellite system (that will be defined and used as benchmarking system).

The main aim of the proposed activity is to assess and show the obtainable performance improvements that can be achieved utilizing the On-Ground Beam-Forming (OGBF) technique in conjunction with Multi User Detection (MUD) in comparison with the traditional on-board beam forming.

The work results will allow conclusions to be drawn on the viability to adopt these techniques in the context of space telecommunications. Such a goal will be achieved through a study Phase (Phase 1) and an implementation Phase (Phase 2).

During Phase 1, an overall OGBF-MUD architecture will initially be defined. Its performance will be comparatively assessed in two steps, namely the OGBF alone and then the full OGBF-MUD system. The activity will conclude with issuing the specifications of a proof-of-concept real-time Test-Bed sufficiently representative of a full-fledged OGBF-MUD system, which will be designed, developed and tested along Phase 2. Such a Test Bed, implemented using both COTS hardware and ad-hoc programmed FPGAs will demonstrate the usefulness and suitability of the chosen architecture for future satellite systems.

Challenges

The following aspects will need to be traded-off and detailed:

• Efficient ground/space partitioning and payload architecture definition,
• Beamforming impairments analysis (mismatches, different frequency conversions, propagation channel, different Doppler per channel, etc.),
• On-ground calibration techniques, comprising the analysis of the following aspects:
  • Reference calibration signal and/or beacons,
  • Estimation/calibration algorithms,
  • Sensitivity of the algorithms’ performances to SNIR, traffic, scintillation, etc.
• On-ground signal processing algorithms, including:
  • Spatial filtering (e.g. adaptive array processing, nulling, etc.),
  • Multi-User Detection (e.g. co-channel interference cancellation techniques, etc.).

Plan

The project is expected to last 24 months and is divided in the following two contractual phases:

• Phase 1 – Full-scale System Definition and Test-Bed Architectural Design
• Phase 2 – Test-Bed Detailed Design, Integration and Testing
  The activity breakdown is as follows:
• Phase 1
  1. WP 10 – Space/Ground Architecture and Requirements Definition,
  2. WP 20 – Test-Bed Preliminary Design.
• Phase 2
  1. WP 30 – Test-Bed Detailed Design,
  2. WP 40 – Test-Bed Implementation,
  3. WP 50- Validation/Test Campaign,
  4. WP 60 – Design Consolidation, Technology Roadmap and Recommendations.

Current Status

Phase 1 has been successfully closed, and phase 2 has started.