Optimization in VHTS Satellite System Design with Irregular Beam Coverage for Non-Uniform Traffic Distribution

Very High Throughput Satellites (VHTS) have a pivotal role in complementing terrestrial networks to increase traffic demand. VHTS systems currently assume a uniform distribution of traffic in the service area, but in a real system, traffic demands are not uniform and are dynamic. A possible solution is to use flexible payloads, but the cost of the design increases considerably. On the other hand, a fixed payload that uses irregular beam coverage depending on traffic demand allows maintaining the cost of a fixed payload while minimizing the error between offered and required capacity. This paper presents a proposal for optimizing irregular beams coverage and beam pattern, minimizing the costs per Gbps in orbit, the Normalized Coverage Error, and Offered Capacity Error per beam. We present the analysis and performance for the case study and compare it with a previous algorithm for a uniform coverage area

Forward Link Optimization for the Design of VHTS Satellite Networks

The concept of geostationary VHTS (Very High Throughput Satellites) is based on multibeam coverage with intensive frequency and polarization reuse, in addition to the use of larger bandwidths in the feeder links, in order to provide high capacity satellite links at a reduced cost per Gbps in orbit. The dimensioning and design of satellite networks based on VHTS imposes the analysis of multiple trade-offs to achieve an optimal solution in terms of cost, capacity, and the figure of merit of the user terminal. In this paper, we propose a new method for sizing VHTS satellite networks based on an analytical expression of the forward link CINR (Carrier-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio) that is used to evaluate the trade-off of different combinations of system parameters. The proposed method considers both technical and commercial requirements as inputs, including the constraints to achieve the optimum solution in terms of the user G/T, the number of beams, and the system cost. The cost model includes both satellite and ground segments. Exemplary results are presented with feeder links using Q/V bands, DVB-S2X and transmission methods based on CCM and VCM (Constant and Variable Coding and Modulation, respectively) in two scenarios with different service areas

Convolutional Neural Networks for Flexible Payload Management in VHTS Systems

Very high throughput satellite (VHTS) systems are expected to have a large increase in traffic demand in the near future. However, this increase will not be uniform throughout the service area due to the nonuniform user distribution, and the changing traffic demand during the day. This problem is addressed using flexible payload architectures, enabling the allocation of the payload resources in a flexible manner to meet traffic demand of each beam, leading to dynamic resource management (DRM) approaches. However, DRM adds significant complexity to the VHTS systems, which is why in this article, we are analyzing the use of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to manage the resources available in flexible payload architectures for DRM. The VHTS system model is first outlined, for introducing the DRM problem statement and the CNN-based solution. A comparison between different payload architectures is performed in terms of DRM response, and the CNN algorithm performance is compared by three other algorithms, previously suggested in the literature to demonstrate the effectiveness of the suggested approach and to examine all the challenges involved

Correction: Ortiz-Gomez, F.G. et al. Forward Link Optimization for the Design of VHTS Satellite Networks. Electronics 2020, 9, 473

We, the authors, wish to make the following correction to our published paper [...

Method of Rain Attenuation Prediction Based on Long–Short Term Memory Network

Rain attenuation events are one of the foremost drawbacks in satellite communications, impairing satellite link availability. For this reason, it is necessary to foresee rain events to avoid an outage of the satellite link. In this paper, we propose and develop a method based on Machine Learning to predict events of rain attenuation without appealing to complex mathematical models. To be specific, we implement a Long–short term memory architecture that is a Deep Learning algorithm based on an artificial recurrent neural network. Furthermore, supervised learning is the learning task for our algorithms. For this purpose, rain attenuation time-series feed the Long–short term memory network at the input to train it. However, the lack of a rainfall database hinders the development of a reliable prediction method. Therefore, we generate a synthetic rain attenuation database by using the recommendations of the International Telecommunication Union. Each model is trained and validated by computational experiments, employing statistical metrics to find the most accurate and reliable models. Thus, the accuracy metric compares the outcomes of the proposal with other related methods and models. As a result, our best model reaches an accuracy of 91.88% versus 87.99% from the external best model, demonstrating superiority over other models/methods. On average, our proposal accuracy reaches a value of 88.08%. Finally, we find out that this proposal can contribute efficiently to improving the performance of satellite system networks by re-routing data traffic or increasing link availabilities, taking advantage of the prediction of rain attenuation events

Cooperative Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for Resource Management in Full Flexible VHTS Systems

Very high throughput satellite (VHTS) systems are expected to have a huge increase in traffic demand in the near future. Nevertheless, this increase will not be uniform over the entire service area due to the non-uniform distribution of users and changes in traffic demand during the day. This problem is addressed by using flexible payload architectures, which allow the allocation of payload resources flexibly to meet the traffic demand of each beam, leading to dynamic resource management (DRM) approaches. However, DRM adds significant complexity to VHTS systems, so in this paper we discuss the use of one reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm and two deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithms to manage the resources available in flexible payload architectures for DRM. These algorithms are Q-Learning (QL), Deep Q-Learning (DQL) and Double Deep Q-Learning (DDQL) which are compared based on their performance, complexity and added latency. On the other hand, this work demonstrates the superiority a cooperative multiagent (CMA) decentralized distribution has over a single agent (SA)

Machine Learning for Radio Resource Management in Multibeam GEO Satellite Systems

Satellite communications (SatComs) systems are facing a massive increase in traffic demand. However, this increase is not uniform across the service area due to the uneven distribution of users and changes in traffic demand diurnal. This problem is addressed by using flexible payload architectures, which allow payload resources to be flexibly allocated to meet the traffic demand of each beam. While optimization-based radio resource management (RRM) has shown significant performance gains, its intense computational complexity limits its practical implementation in real systems. In this paper, we discuss the architecture, implementation and applications of Machine Learning (ML) for resource management in multibeam GEO satellite systems. We mainly focus on two systems, one with power, bandwidth, and/or beamwidth flexibility, and the second with time flexibility, i.e., beam hopping. We analyze and compare different ML techniques that have been proposed for these architectures, emphasizing the use of Supervised Learning (SL) and Reinforcement Learning (RL). To this end, we define whether training should be conducted online or offline based on the characteristics and requirements of each proposed ML technique and discuss the most appropriate system architecture and the advantages and disadvantages of each approach

Supervised Machine Learning for Power and Bandwidth Management in VHTS Systems

In the near future, Very High Throughput Satellite (VHTS) systems are expected to have a high increase in traffic demand. However, this increase will not be uniform over the service area and will be also dynamic. A solution to this problem is given by flexible payload architectures; however, they require that resource management is performed autonomously and with low latency. In this paper we propose the use of Supervised Machine Learning, in particular a Classification algorithm, to manage the resources available in flexible payload architectures. A use case is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and a discussion is made on all the challenges that are presented