Next Generation High Throughput Satellite System

This paper aims at presenting an overview of the state-of-the-art in High Throughput Satellite (HTS) systems for Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) and High Density-FSS. Promising techniques and innovative strategies that can enhance system performance are reviewed and analyzed aiming to show what to expect for next generation ultra-high capacity satellite systems. Potential air interface evolutions, efficient frequency plans,feeder link dimensioning strategies and interference cancellation techniques are presented to show how Terabit/s satellite myth may turn into reality real soon

Iterative turbo beamforming for OFDM based hybrid terrestrial-satellite mobile system

In the context of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based systems, pilot-based beamforming (BF) exhibits a high degree of sensitivity to the pilot sub-carriers. Increasing the number of reference pilots significantly improves BF performance as well as system performance. However, this increase comes at the cost of data throughput, which inevitably shrinks due to transmission of additional pilots. Hence an approach where reference signals available to the BF process can be increased without transmitting additional pilots can exhibit superior system performance without compromising throughput. Thus, the authors present a novel three-stage iterative turbo beamforming (ITBF) algorithm for an OFDM-based hybrid terrestrial-satellite mobile system, which utilises both pilots and data to perform interference mitigation. Data sub-carriers are utilised as virtual reference signals in the BF process. Results show that when compared to non-iterative conventional BF, the proposed ITBF exhibits bit error rate gain of up to 2.5 dB with only one iteration

Performance analysis of joint precoding and MUD techniques in multibeam satellite systems

This paper considers interference mitigation techniques in the forward link of multibeam satellite systems. In contrast to previous works, either devoted to receiver interference mitigation (e.g. multiuser detection) or transmitter interference mitigation (precoding), this work evaluates the achievable rates of the joint combination of both techniques. On the one hand, precoding cannot properly mitigate all the inter- beam interference while maintaining a sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio. On the other hand, the receiver cost and complexity exponentially increases with the number of signals to be simultaneously detected. This highlights that the receiver cannot deal with all the interferences so that in general only 2 signals are jointly detected. As a result, the use of precoding within a coverage area jointly with multiuser detection can both benefit from each other and extremely increase the achievable rates of the system. This is numerically evaluated in a close-to-real coverage area considering simultaneous non-unique decoding strategies. The results show the benefits of this joint scheme that eventually can increase the current precoding performance a 23%.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

NOMA and interference limited satellite scenarios

This paper deals with the problem of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) in multibeam satellite systems, where the signals are jointly precoded. It is considered that the number of frames that are simultaneously transmitted is higher than the number of feeds, reducing the precoding interference mitigation capabilities as the system becomes overloaded. In order to solve this problem, we assume that the satellite user terminals are able to perform multi-user detection to mitigate the interference. In the current NOMA approach, it is assumed a successive interference cancellation (SIC) receiver. To increase the spectral efficiency, this paper investigates NOMA with simultaneous non-unique detection (SND). Compared to the case where user terminals perform single user detection (SUD), conventional scheduling heuristic rules do not longer apply in this scenario. Therefore, different scheduling algorithms are proposed considering both SIC and SND strategies. As the numerical evaluations show, SND yields larger average data rates than the SIC receiver. Concerning the scheduling, the best strategy is to pair users with highly correlated channels and the lowest channel gain difference. It is also shown that the sum-rate can be increased in overloaded satellite systems with respect to satellite scenarios, where the number of transmitted frames and feeds is the same.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Performance Analysis of Joint Precoding and MUD Techniques in Multibeam Satellite Systems

This paper considers interference mitigation techniques in the forward link of multibeam satellite systems. In contrast to previous works, either devoted to receiver interference mitigation (e.g. multiuser detection) or transmitter interference mitigation (precoding), this work evaluates the achievable rates of the joint combination of both techniques. On the one hand, precoding cannot properly mitigate all the inter- beam interference while maintaining a sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio. On the other hand, the receiver cost and complexity exponentially increases with the number of signals to be simultaneously detected. This highlights that the receiver cannot deal with all the interferences so that in general only 2 signals are jointly detected. As a result, the use of precoding within a coverage area jointly with multiuser detection can both benefit from each other and extremely increase the achievable rates of the system. This is numerically evaluated in a close-to-real coverage area considering simultaneous non-unique decoding strategies. The results show the benefits of this joint scheme that eventually can increase the current precoding performance a 23%

Applications of Soft Computing in Mobile and Wireless Communications

Soft computing is a synergistic combination of artificial intelligence methodologies to model and solve real world problems that are either impossible or too difficult to model mathematically. Furthermore, the use of conventional modeling techniques demands rigor, precision and certainty, which carry computational cost. On the other hand, soft computing utilizes computation, reasoning and inference to reduce computational cost by exploiting tolerance for imprecision, uncertainty, partial truth and approximation. In addition to computational cost savings, soft computing is an excellent platform for autonomic computing, owing to its roots in artificial intelligence. Wireless communication networks are associated with much uncertainty and imprecision due to a number of stochastic processes such as escalating number of access points, constantly changing propagation channels, sudden variations in network load and random mobility of users. This reality has fuelled numerous applications of soft computing techniques in mobile and wireless communications. This paper reviews various applications of the core soft computing methodologies in mobile and wireless communications

Cognitive Communications and Networking Technology Infusion Study Report

As the envisioned next-generation SCaN Network transitions into an end-to-end system of systems with new enabling capabilities, it is anticipated that the introduction of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other cognitive strategies into the network infrastructure will result in increased mission science return, improved resource efficiencies, and increased autonomy and reliability. This enhanced set of cognitive capabilities will be implemented via a space cloud concept to achieve a service-oriented architecture with distributed cognition, de-centralized routing, and shared, on-orbit data processing. The enabling cognitive communications and networking capabilities that may facilitate the desired network enhancements are identified in this document, and the associated enablers of these capabilities, such as technologies and standards, are described in detail