Proceedings of the Second International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC 1990)

Presented here are the proceedings of the Second International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC), held June 17-20, 1990 in Ottawa, Canada. Topics covered include future mobile satellite communications concepts, aeronautical applications, modulation and coding, propagation and experimental systems, mobile terminal equipment, network architecture and control, regulatory and policy considerations, vehicle antennas, and speech compression

Frequency diversity wideband digital receiver and signal processor for solid-state dual-polarimetric weather radars

2012 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.The recent spate in the use of solid-state transmitters for weather radar systems has unexceptionably revolutionized the research in meteorology. The solid-state transmitters allow transmission of low peak powers without losing the radar range resolution by allowing the use of pulse compression waveforms. In this research, a novel frequency-diversity wideband waveform is proposed and realized to extenuate the low sensitivity of solid-state radars and mitigate the blind range problem tied with the longer pulse compression waveforms. The latest developments in the computing landscape have permitted the design of wideband digital receivers which can process this novel waveform on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chips. In terms of signal processing, wideband systems are generally characterized by the fact that the bandwidth of the signal of interest is comparable to the sampled bandwidth; that is, a band of frequencies must be selected and filtered out from a comparable spectral window in which the signal might occur. The development of such a wideband digital receiver opens a window for exciting research opportunities for improved estimation of precipitation measurements for higher frequency systems such as X, Ku and Ka bands, satellite-borne radars and other solid-state ground-based radars. This research describes various unique challenges associated with the design of a multi-channel wideband receiver. The receiver consists of twelve channels which simultaneously downconvert and filter the digitized intermediate-frequency (IF) signal for radar data processing. The product processing for the multi-channel digital receiver mandates a software and network architecture which provides for generating and archiving a single meteorological product profile culled from multi-pulse profiles at an increased data date. The multi-channel digital receiver also continuously samples the transmit pulse for calibration of radar receiver gain and transmit power. The multi-channel digital receiver has been successfully deployed as a key component in the recently developed National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Dual-Frequency Dual-Polarization Doppler Radar (D3R). The D3R is the principal ground validation instrument for the precipitation measurements of the Dual Precipitation Radar (DPR) onboard the GPM Core Observatory satellite scheduled for launch in 2014. The D3R system employs two broadly separated frequencies at Ku- and Ka-bands that together make measurements for precipitation types which need higher sensitivity such as light rain, drizzle and snow. This research describes unique design space to configure the digital receiver for D3R at several processing levels. At length, this research presents analysis and results obtained by employing the multi-carrier waveforms for D3R during the 2012 GPM Cold-Season Precipitation Experiment (GCPEx) campaign in Canada

Implementations of Multi-Antenna Systems in a USRP Based SDR using Simulink

Software Radio systems are one of the most versatile and cost effective systems for pro- totyping communications techniques in use today. Through the use of minimal hardware, typically only an RF front end, an SDR allows for as much of the signal processing as possible to be done via software. The benefits of utilizing software for signal processing in place of hardware are numerous. In some cases, like this work, parameters of operation may need to be dynamic or the objective of the work is academic research of new techniques. In some cases like these, swapping out costly signal processing hardware for signal processing software makes more sense. Additionally, the use of multi-antenna systems is becoming more and more common. In mid-2011, Mathworks released support for standard SISO (single input, single output) communications with the NI USRP (National Instruments Universal Software Radio Peripheral) but has yet to release support for any SIMO, MISO, or MIMO applications. In this work, we produce a testbed for proof of SIMO concepts and performance improvements in MATLAB and Simulink along with outlining preliminary work in implementing the MISO method of Alamouti STBC. The processes used to implement the discussed techniques will be outlined and discussed including results from testing with the USRPs in Simulink

Application of advanced on-board processing concepts to future satellite communications systems

An initial definition of on-board processing requirements for an advanced satellite communications system to service domestic markets in the 1990's is presented. An exemplar system architecture with both RF on-board switching and demodulation/remodulation baseband processing was used to identify important issues related to system implementation, cost, and technology development

Massive MIMO for Internet of Things (IoT) Connectivity

Massive MIMO is considered to be one of the key technologies in the emerging 5G systems, but also a concept applicable to other wireless systems. Exploiting the large number of degrees of freedom (DoFs) of massive MIMO essential for achieving high spectral efficiency, high data rates and extreme spatial multiplexing of densely distributed users. On the one hand, the benefits of applying massive MIMO for broadband communication are well known and there has been a large body of research on designing communication schemes to support high rates. On the other hand, using massive MIMO for Internet-of-Things (IoT) is still a developing topic, as IoT connectivity has requirements and constraints that are significantly different from the broadband connections. In this paper we investigate the applicability of massive MIMO to IoT connectivity. Specifically, we treat the two generic types of IoT connections envisioned in 5G: massive machine-type communication (mMTC) and ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC). This paper fills this important gap by identifying the opportunities and challenges in exploiting massive MIMO for IoT connectivity. We provide insights into the trade-offs that emerge when massive MIMO is applied to mMTC or URLLC and present a number of suitable communication schemes. The discussion continues to the questions of network slicing of the wireless resources and the use of massive MIMO to simultaneously support IoT connections with very heterogeneous requirements. The main conclusion is that massive MIMO can bring benefits to the scenarios with IoT connectivity, but it requires tight integration of the physical-layer techniques with the protocol design.Comment: Submitted for publicatio

Proceedings of the Mobile Satellite Conference

A satellite-based mobile communications system provides voice and data communications to mobile users over a vast geographic area. The technical and service characteristics of mobile satellite systems (MSSs) are presented and form an in-depth view of the current MSS status at the system and subsystem levels. Major emphasis is placed on developments, current and future, in the following critical MSS technology areas: vehicle antennas, networking, modulation and coding, speech compression, channel characterization, space segment technology and MSS experiments. Also, the mobile satellite communications needs of government agencies are addressed, as is the MSS potential to fulfill them

Proceedings of the Third International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC 1993)

Satellite-based mobile communications systems provide voice and data communications to users over a vast geographic area. The users may communicate via mobile or hand-held terminals, which may also provide access to terrestrial cellular communications services. While the first and second International Mobile Satellite Conferences (IMSC) mostly concentrated on technical advances, this Third IMSC also focuses on the increasing worldwide commercial activities in Mobile Satellite Services. Because of the large service areas provided by such systems, it is important to consider political and regulatory issues in addition to technical and user requirements issues. Topics covered include: the direct broadcast of audio programming from satellites; spacecraft technology; regulatory and policy considerations; advanced system concepts and analysis; propagation; and user requirements and applications