Non-linearized amplifier and advanced mitigation techniques: DVB-S2X spectral efficiency improvement

The latest standardization DVB-S2X increases the achievable spectral efficiency of the satellite communications by around 15% in AWGN channel. In order to benefit from those improvements, the strong non-linear distortions introduced by the payload have to be overcome, mostly taking high back-off on the amplifier operation point. Nowadays, on- board amplifiers are linearized before being deployed, allowing low-complexity transmitters and receivers at the detriment of the payload's cost and reduced energy efficiency. In this paper, various techniques are investigated for the purpose of spectral efficiency improvement while releasing the amplifier linearization constraint. Iterative pre-distortion at the transmitter, turbo- equalization at the receiver and appropriate waveforms for transmission through non-linearized payload appear as strong candidates considering the results of this study

FTN Signaling In the Saturation Regime: Spectral Efficiency Improvement

Faster-than-Nyquist (FTN) signaling is investigated in future satellite communication standardization for an improved spectral efficiency considering the increasingly constrained resource. Previous studies showed that FTN lower modulation orders compressed in time-domain could reach the spectral efficiency of uncompressed higher modulation orders. The FTN gain in terms of transmission rate is obtained at the price of a turbo-equalization at the receiver, increasing the complexity. The increased capacity in DVB-S2X’s transmissions is due to innovations increasing the fluctuation of the complex envelop of the transmitted signal. Since the satellite’s payload introduces higher non-linear distortions with increased fluctuations, the growing receiver’s complexity is unavoidable. However, in this non linear regime, the complexity of the FTN receiver is not this detrimental compared with those of a classical Nyquist receiver. For a similar spectral efficiency, its lower Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR), making the non-linearities treatment easier, makes this innovation suitable for future satellite communications, especially when the payload is operated in the saturation regime. In this paper, we show that compression offers a gain between 10 and 20 in terms of spectral efficiency when compared to Nyquist signaling, both equalized thanks to the MAP symbol detection based on the Volterra series model of non-linearities

The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU)

The X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray spectrometer of the ESA Athena X-ray observatory. Over a field of view of 5' equivalent diameter, it will deliver X-ray spectra from 0.2 to 12 keV with a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV up to 7 keV on similar to 5 '' pixels. The X-IFU is based on a large format array of super-conducting molybdenum-gold Transition Edge Sensors cooled at similar to 90 mK, each coupled with an absorber made of gold and bismuth with a pitch of 249 mu m. A cryogenic anti-coincidence detector located underneath the prime TES array enables the non X-ray background to be reduced. A bath temperature of similar to 50 mK is obtained by a series of mechanical coolers combining 15K Pulse Tubes, 4K and 2K Joule-Thomson coolers which pre-cool a sub Kelvin cooler made of a He-3 sorption cooler coupled with an Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator. Frequency domain multiplexing enables to read out 40 pixels in one single channel. A photon interacting with an absorber leads to a current pulse, amplified by the readout electronics and whose shape is reconstructed on board to recover its energy with high accuracy. The defocusing capability offered by the Athena movable mirror assembly enables the X-IFU to observe the brightest X-ray sources of the sky (up to Crab-like intensities) by spreading the telescope point spread function over hundreds of pixels. Thus the X-IFU delivers low pile-up, high throughput (> 50%), and typically 10 eV spectral resolution at 1 Crab intensities, i.e. a factor of 10 or more better than Silicon based X-ray detectors. In this paper, the current X-IFU baseline is presented, together with an assessment of its anticipated performance in terms of spectral resolution, background, and count rate capability. The X-IFU baseline configuration will be subject to a preliminary requirement review that is scheduled at the end of 2018. The X-IFU will be provided by an international consortium led by France, the Netherlands and Italy, with further ESA member state contributions from Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and contributions from Japan and the United States.Peer reviewe

The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit: a consolidated design for the system requirement review of the preliminary definition phase

The Athena X-ray Integral Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray spectrometer, studied since 2015 for flying in the mid-30s on the Athena space X-ray Observatory, a versatile observatory designed to address the Hot and Energetic Universe science theme, selected in November 2013 by the Survey Science Committee. Based on a large format array of Transition Edge Sensors (TES), it aims to provide spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, with a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV (up to 7 keV) over an hexagonal field of view of 5 arc minutes (equivalent diameter). The X-IFU entered its System Requirement Review (SRR) in June 2022, at about the same time when ESA called for an overall X-IFU redesign (including the X-IFU cryostat and the cooling chain), due to an unanticipated cost overrun of Athena. In this paper, after illustrating the breakthrough capabilities of the X-IFU, we describe the instrument as presented at its SRR, browsing through all the subsystems and associated requirements. We then show the instrument budgets, with a particular emphasis on the anticipated budgets of some of its key performance parameters. Finally we briefly discuss on the ongoing key technology demonstration activities, the calibration and the activities foreseen in the X-IFU Instrument Science Center, and touch on communication and outreach activities, the consortium organisation, and finally on the life cycle assessment of X-IFU aiming at minimising the environmental footprint, associated with the development of the instrument. Thanks to the studies conducted so far on X-IFU, it is expected that along the design-to-cost exercise requested by ESA, the X-IFU will maintain flagship capabilities in spatially resolved high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, enabling most of the original X-IFU related scientific objectives of the Athena mission to be retained. (abridged).Comment: 48 pages, 29 figures, Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy with minor editin

The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit: a consolidated design for the system requirement review of the preliminary definition phase

The Athena X-ray Integral Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray spectrometer studied since 2015 for flying in the mid-30s on the Athena space X-ray Observatory. Athena is a versatile observatory designed to address the Hot and Energetic Universe science theme, as selected in November 2013 by the Survey Science Committee. Based on a large format array of Transition Edge Sensors (TES), X-IFU aims to provide spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, with a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV (up to 7 keV) over a hexagonal field of view of 5 arc minutes (equivalent diameter). The X-IFU entered its System Requirement Review (SRR) in June 2022, at about the same time when ESA called for an overall X-IFU redesign (including the X-IFU cryostat and the cooling chain), due to an unanticipated cost overrun of Athena. In this paper, after illustrating the breakthrough capabilities of the X-IFU, we describe the instrument as presented at its SRR (i.e. in the course of its preliminary definition phase, so-called B1), browsing through all the subsystems and associated requirements. We then show the instrument budgets, with a particular emphasis on the anticipated budgets of some of its key performance parameters, such as the instrument efficiency, spectral resolution, energy scale knowledge, count rate capability, non X-ray background and target of opportunity efficiency. Finally, we briefly discuss the ongoing key technology demonstration activities, the calibration and the activities foreseen in the X-IFU Instrument Science Center, touch on communication and outreach activities, the consortium organisation and the life cycle assessment of X-IFU aiming at minimising the environmental footprint, associated with the development of the instrument. Thanks to the studies conducted so far on X-IFU, it is expected that along the design-to-cost exercise requested by ESA, the X-IFU will maintain flagship capabilities in spatially resolved high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, enabling most of the original X-IFU related scientific objectives of the Athena mission to be retained. The X-IFU will be provided by an international consortium led by France, The Netherlands and Italy, with ESA member state contributions from Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, with additional contributions from the United States and Japan.The French contribution to X-IFU is funded by CNES, CNRS and CEA. This work has been also supported by ASI (Italian Space Agency) through the Contract 2019-27-HH.0, and by the ESA (European Space Agency) Core Technology Program (CTP) Contract No. 4000114932/15/NL/BW and the AREMBES - ESA CTP No.4000116655/16/NL/BW. This publication is part of grant RTI2018-096686-B-C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”. This publication is part of grant RTI2018-096686-B-C21 and PID2020-115325GB-C31 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033

Détection de phase à très faible rapport signal à bruit à l'aide d'un code de parité

De nombreuses études ont récemment montré l'avantage qu'on peut tirer du décodage canal pour l'amélioration de la synchronisation de phase porteuse à faible rapport signal à bruit. Lorsque la phase à estimer varie au court du temps (erreur de fréquence, bruit de phase), l'estimation de la phase avant la première étape de décodage pose toutefois problème lorsque les mots de code sont longs. Nous proposons ici un algorithme de synchronisation fondé sur l'introduction d'un code de parité simple et court. Nous montrons que pour une transmission continue et une modulation MDP8, le détecteur proposé permet de réduire sensiblement la gigue de phase à très faible point de fonctionnement et en présence de bruit de phase, par rapport aux algorithmes classiques. De faible complexité, il apparait notamment bien adapté au contexte des télécommunications par satellite

Trade-off between spectral efficiency increase and PAPR reduction when using FTN signaling: Impact of non linearities

International audienceFaster-than-Nyquist (FTN) signaling appears as an attractive method to improve spectral efficiency at the price of an increased complexity at the receiver. The receiver generally implements a turbo-equalization/detection scheme to benefit from all the promises of the FTN signaling. However, this is not the only limitation we have to deal with. Indeed, compressing in the time domain impact the emitted signal and it usually results in an increase of the envelope fluctuations. This leads to an inherent multi-objectives trade-off between performance, targeted spectral efficiency and limited Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR). The last aspect is crucial when considering a satellite communication link due to non-linear amplification effects that can occur on-board the satellite. Usually, FTN studies focus on spectral efficiency increase for a fixed modulation order, trying to trade-off between performance and PAPR properties. In this paper, we show that, for a given asymptotic spectral efficiency, we can compress low order modulations to increase the spectral efficiency of these schemes while controlling the PAPR increase to achieve a better PAPR than the non compressed scheme with a higher modulation order. Thus, for the same asymptotic spectral efficiency, we can achieve 1 dB gain in terms of PAPR and 2 dB gain in Bit Error Rate (BER) performances for a coded 8-PSK FTN system compared to a coded 16-APSK. For the same BER performances, the asymptotic spectral efficiency gain obtained in linear context is over 20 %, higher when non-linearities are taken into account

Receiver for FTN Signaling in Non-Linear Channel: Joint Channel Estimation and Synchronization

International audienceIn order to increase the capacity of future satellite communication systems, faster-than-Nyquist (FTN) signaling is increasingly considered. The gain in terms of transmission rate is obtained at the price of significant intersymbol interference (ISI) introduction. To benefit from an improved spectral efficiency (SE), many iterative detectors have already been investigated, demonstrating the interest of such a waveform in linear and non linear channels. A thorny point in FTN signaling remains its synchronization since the usual algorithms considered in the DVB-S2X standard cannot be applied on this waveform without significant loss on the performance. This paper proposes a synchronization scheme for FTN signaling in a satellite context. It is based on a Volterra decomposition of the received signal in order to fit both with linearized and non-linearized amplifiers which can be found in the satellite payload. Two steps, initialization and tracking are considered, based on training sequences fulfilling the DVB-S2Xs frames requirements. After start of sequence detection and frequency offset correction, the channel estimation is used for time offset issue in the two proposed schemes. Their performance are compared to the performance of a perfect synchronized detection

Piecewise Volterra Series Approximation for Improved Non-Linear Channel Modelization and Detection

International audienceIn satellite communications, the non-linear distortions introduced by the amplifier in the payload have to be overcome. When advanced mitigation techniques are considered at the receiver side, the current channel model is often based on Volterra series derived from an approximation of the non linear transfer function of the on-board amplifier. This nonlinear model is conditioning the performance at the receiver side. In this paper, a new non-linear model is proposed, leading to improved receiver performances. The polynomial approximation is improved considering both the usual model truncation to the 3rd order and the signal fluctuation at the input of the amplifier. First, the impact of the polynomial order of the AM/AM and AM/PM curve approximation is studied. Then, a non-linear model is derived based on a piecewise polynomial approximation of the amplifier response. Based on this refined nonlinear model, significant detection performance improvements are shown for both Nyquist and Faster-than-Nyquist rates

Guest Editorial Special Issue: “From Deletion-Correction to Graph Reconstruction: In Memory of Vladimir I. Levenshtein”

International audienc