A signal-to-noise enhancer with a bandwidth that is six times as wide as that of the conventional type is presented. A new circuit construction, the combination of two MSSW filters which have the same insertion loss in the broadband and two 90 hybrids, is effective to remarkably extend the bandwidth. The enhancement of the enhancer amounts to 20 dB in the operating frequency range of 1.9 GHz150 MHz in 0 to 60 degrees centigrade. This enhancer has accomplished FM threshold extension because the S/N is improved by 1 to 7 dB below the C/N of 9 dB. It was demonstrated that this new enhancer is effective for noise reduction in practical DBS reception.

A new concept for a navigation and communication satellite system has been proposed. The navigation satellite system that forms the basis of the proposed system has been studied by one of the authors and extended to add a mobile communication function to the system. The satellite system consists of 15 satellites in quasi-geostationary orbit (QGEO) that have a geostationary altitude and high inclination and provide global coverage and positioning capability to the observer through only reception of the range measurement signals generated at the satellites, which are in the same configuration as the satellites in Global Positioning System (GPS), Three satellites out of the 15 satellite are designated to install a subsystem for mobile satellite communication in order to satisfy mobile communication convenience as required in a Future Air Navigation System's (FANS) concept of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The case studies of 15-satellites constellations demonstrate not only an acceptable positioning accuracy over the whole globe, but also an accuracy distribution weighted on the north pole region as an example of a weighted accuracy distribution. The addition of a mobile communication function suggests a unified system of satellite navigation and communication, which might provide convenience for the civil aviation industry, because the two functions currently depend on different systems.

This paper describes reverse modulation carrier recovery with a tank-limiter for Offset QPSK (OQPSK) burst signals. Acquisition performance is discussed taking into account hardware implementation errors in the carrier recovery circuit. The results indicate hardware implementation errors cause a significant recovered carrier phase error during BTR (Bit Timing Recovery) of OQPSK burst signals. A phase error reduction technique by modifying the BTR code for OQPSK burst signals is proposed to improve the acquisition performance. Computer simulation and hardware experiments confirmed its improvement. The performance of a prototype OQPSK burst demodulator using the proposed carrier recovery scheme is also presented.

In this paper, we propose an efficient method (called DIRIC algorithm) to allocate carrier frequencies so as to minimize intermodulation products in two-level SCPC systems in which Hub station and many Remote stations communicate each other through satellite transponder. We also present a very efficient method to evaluate intermodulation products with substantially reduced CPU time in two-level SCPC systems. We compare and analyze the performance of several frequency allocation methods to extend DELINS-INSDEL algorithm (which is proposed by Okinaka) to two-level SCPC systems. When the proposed algorithm is applied to systems with modulated carrier, it is verified that this algorithm has the same efficiency as the unmodulated carrier. It is also shown heuristically that certain initial assignment algorithms perform better than random assignment.

Error-correction techniques can be used to reduce the required carrier-to-noise ratio (C/N) in digital satellite news gathering (SNG) systems. The required e.i.r.p. of a digital SNG terminal is smaller than that of conventional analog SNG RF terminals. In this paper, a Ku-band portable SNG RF terminal using a flat antenna is proposed to make the best use of these digital systems. This portable terminal uses 16 planar microstrip subarray antennas, each with a solid-state power amplifier (SSPA) mounted on its backside. The proposed RF terminal is distinctly different from a conventional RF terminal with a parabolic antenna in two ways; it is portable and it has electronic tracking capability. Electronic antenna tracking reduces the terminal setup time because precise alignment of the antenna with the satellite is not required. This paper first describes the system concept and discusses the design concept. Secondly, it then explains phase shifters and feedback loops for electronic tracking. The tracking performance of a feedback system using four subarrays is also presented with some comparisons between theoretical and measured results. Experimental results for the low side-lobe flat antenna and the SSPAs are then presented. These are the most important components of the system. The flat antenna meets the design objectives specified by ITU-R Recommendations. By orthogonally exciting the rectangular patch antenna, the flat antenna is capable of operating dual polarizations and dual frequencies (transmit/vertical polarization: 14GHz; receive/horizontal polarization: 12GHz). The SSPAs have an efficiency of 21% and an output power of 5W.

An Ultra-high-speed (higher than 60 MHz) Viterbi decoder VLSIC with coding rates from one-half to fifteen-sixteenth and a constraint length of seven for forward error correction (FEC) has been developed using 0.8-µm semicustom CMOS LSIC technology and a newly developed high-speed ACS circuit. To reduce power consumption of the one-chip Viterbi decoder, a universal-coding-rate scarce-state-transition (SST) Viterbi decoding scheme and low-power-consumption burst-mode-selection (BMS) path memory have been proposed and employed to the developed VLSIC. In addition, a new maximum-likelihood-decision (MLD) circuit for the SST Viterbi decoder has been developed. The total power consumption of the developed chip is reduced to 75% of the conventional one and the developed Viterbi decodar VLSIC achieves a maximum operation speed of 60 MHz. It achieves near theoretical net coding-gain performance for various coding rates.

This paper presents new go-back-N ARQ protocols for point-to-multipoint communications over broadcast channels such as satellite or broadcast radio channels. In the conventional go-back-N ARQ protocols for multidestination communications, usually only error detection codes are used for error detection and m copies of a frame are transmitted at a time. In one of our protocols, a bit-by-bit majority-voting decoder based on all of the m copies of a frame is used to recover the transmitted frame. In another protocol, a hybrid-ARQ protocol, which is an error detection code concatenated with a rate repetition convolutional code with the Viterbi decoding, is used. In these protocols, a dynamic programming technique is used to select the optimal number of copies of a frame to be transmitted at a time. The optimal number is determined by round trip propagation delay of the channel, the error probability, and the number of receivers that have not yet received the message. Analytic expressions are derived for the throughput efficiency of the proposed protocols. The proposed point-to-multipoint protocols provide satisfactory throughput efficiency and perform considerably better than the conventional protocols under high error rate conditions, especially in environments with a large number of receivers and large link round trips. In this paper we analyze the performances of the proposed protocols upon the random error channel conditions.

It is well known that weather conditions affect the performance of satellite broadcasting receiving systems. For example, snow accretion on antennas degrades the receiving performance seriously because it reduces received signal power and also can increase antenna noise. Since effects of the weather are considered to differ for various types of receiving antenna, an investigation on this phenomenon is very important. A study on weather effects to three types of satellite broadcasting receiving antenna, a planar antenna, a center-fed parabolic reflector antenna, and an offset parabolic reflector antenna, is presented in this paper. Since the performance of receiving antennas can be determined by a parameter G/T, a long-term and continuous measurement of G/T must be performed. Furthermore, the measurement of more than one receiving system should be performed simultaneously. Also, the measurement should be performed in a snowy area (in winter) and a rainy area (in the other seasons) to evaluate the effect of the weather. To fulfil the criterion, a continuous measurement system of G/T has been built in Hokkaido University, Sapporo. Sapporo, which is located at latitude 42 degrees north, has a long and snowy winter, and also has rainy days in the other seasons so that we can evaluate the effect of weather. Using this measurement system, cumulative distributions of measurement results are obtained so that the performance of different types of receiving system can be evaluated. In this paper, some considerations on the noise level are also discussed briefly to evaluate the performance degradation of the receiving systems.

Some results are presented of a one-year measurement period on an INTELSAT down link at Ku band with elevation of 14 for concurrent measurements of beacon attenuation, sky noise and point rainfall rate. Also some results are presented of line-of-sight (LOS) link fading characteristics at the same place. The projection of the down link trajectory on earth has nearly the same direction as the LOS path trajectory. The measurement results are compared with the theoretical values according to the CCIR recommended procedures of rain attenuation predictions for tropical regions, especially Surabaya, Indonesia. A record rain attenuation value of 80dB was observed.

By using measured attenuation time-series data over 2 years at 19.5GHz with an integration time of 1 sec, effects of the integration time on attenuation statistics are presented. It is observed that the effect on cumulative distribution of attenuation and the relation between annual and the worst-month cumulative time percentages are not significant for the practical prediction purposes. The effect is significant in attenuation duration statistics.

The Akebono satellite observed the Australian Omega signals when it passed about 1000km over the Omega station. In this paper, we compare the observed Omega signal intensities with the values obtained using a full wave calculation and we discuss a mechanism of modulation of the signals. The relative spatial variations of the calculated Omega intensities are quite consistent with those observed, but the absolute calculated intensities themselves are several dB larger than the observed intensities. This difference in intensity may be due to the horizontal inhomogeneity of the D region, which is not modeled in the full wave calculation, or to an incorrect assumption about radiation characteristics of the Omega antenna. It is found that modulation of the observed signals is caused by the interference between the waves with different k vectors.

A new concept for a positioning satellite system based on a new satellite constellation has been studied. The system needs a minimum of four satellites injected into quasi-geostationary orbit (QGEO) with high inclination. Due to the QGEO characteristic, the satellites are orbiting within continuous visibility range of ground control stations (GCS), from which the satellite time is controlled through the link connections of the feeder and the intersatellite communication (ISC). Consideration is made for the required high accuracy and quality checks against malfunction, wherever the satellites may be positioned. The orbit data processing function, another major function, is performed independently of the time control. The case of global coverage attained by twelve satellites has been studied in this paper. When a constellation of satellites for a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is designed, conditions to obtain a good geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) at all places and times should be considered. Therefore, the satellites will be spread out in wide directions and are in an asymmetrical arrangement when seen by an observer are considered when setting the parameters of the ephemerides of the constellation. Under the restraints of the designed constellation, the GDOP value distribution for a third of the world map with area time parameters is computed and summarized in histograms for the system evaluation.

Statistically improved results of power line radiation (PLR) over Eastern Asia observed at 50 and 60Hz are described in this paper. A total number of 150 orbits, which had been observed from June 1984 to January 1986, by the Japanese scientific satellite OHZORA, are used to detect PLR over Eastern Asia around the Japanese Islands. Depending on the increase in the number of data points, the statistical characteristics of the background noise can be precisely determined by using the improved technique compared with the initial analysis. Statistically reasonable data points are detected as PLR based on the +3 criterion, where is the standard deviation of the background noise. Therefore, the statistical reliability for rejecting the background noise is 99.85%. Then, these detected data are applied to the cause-and-effect test. When the statistically detected data points are placed on the map of Eastern Asia, the points cover Eastern Japan and the east coast of China for 50Hz, and they cover Western Japan for 60 Hz. The maps of the detection ratios and those of the average field strengths indicate the positive correlation with the ground maps of the electric power generation at 50 and 60 Hz. The positive correlation is more clearly seen at 50Hz since the background noise is somewhat weaker than that at 60Hz. This close relationship between the satellite observation and the electric power generation suggests that the detection of PLR is not caused by chance, and that PLR penetrates into the ionosphere and propagates approximately just upward. The decrease of field strength with altitude can be interpreted as the gradual decrease of the refractive index from 400 to 700km. Therefore, the detection ratio and the average field strength with respect to the satellite altitude suggest PLR propagating from the bottom of the ionosphere. According to these observational results, it is concluded that PLR in Eastern Asia is high above the high electric power generating regions over Japan and China, and that the satellite observation is capable of estimating PLR field below the ionosphere. These results are the first direct indication that the PLR field is enhanced over the high electric power generation region, and is penetrating into the ionosphere.

Since its successful launch in February of 1992, the Japan Earth Resources Satellite-1 (JERS-1) has been sending back high resolution images of the earth for various studies, including the investigation of earth resources, the preservation of environments and the observation of coastal lines. Currently, received images are processed using the Earth Resources Satellite Data Information System (ERSDIS). The ERSDIS is a high speed image processing system utilizing an extended cellular array processor as its main processing module. The extended cellular array processor (CAP), consisting of 4096 processing elements configured into a two-dimensional array, is designed to have many parallel processing optimizing capabilities targetting large-scale image processing at a high speed. This paper desctribes a typical image processing flow, the structure of the ERSDIS, and the details of the CAP design.

The bit error performance of a Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Communication system in actual land mobile satellite channel is evaluated with experiments. Field test results with the ETS-V satellite in urban and suburban environments at L-band frequency show that this land mobile satellite channel of 3MHz bandwidth can be seen as a non-frequency selective Rician fading channel as well as shadowing channel. The bit error performance can be estimated from signal power measurement as in the case of narrow band modulation signals.

Japan's PARTNERS Project, one of the programmes of ISY advocated by UN, has just started. This letter is a brief introduction of the trials being carried out by the partners in the University of Electro-communications under the Project. The focus is on the distance education and training via ETS-V overcoming the geographical extent and the cultural diversity of the Asia-Pacific Region.

Link conditions of a low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications system were evaluated, to provide the information necessary for designing a broadband LEO-SAT communications system. The study was made both for optical intersatellite and user/satellite links. For the optical intersatellite link (ISL), we examined several ISL configurations in a circular polar orbit, and found that when the satellites are in the same orbital plane, the link parameters are quite stable, that is, the link between adjacent satellites can be regarded as fixed and, therefore, suitable for broadband transmission via an optical link. However, the link conditions between adjacent orbits change very quickly and over a wide range. To overcome this and extend the network path between satellites in adjacent orbital planes, we proposed intermittent use of the link between satellites in co-rotating adjacent orbital planes at the low latitude region, i.e., only during the period of stable conditions. The optical intersatellite link budget also sets link parameters that are realistic, given present optoelectronic technologies. From quantitative evaluations of the user/satellite link, we believe that both the satellite altitude and minimum elevation angle are critical, both in defining the quality of the service of the LEO-SAT system and in their impact on the other transmission parameters. The link loss, the visible period and the required number of satellites vs. satellite altitude and elevation angle are also indicated. These are important considerations for future system design.

This paper proposes a suitable combination of the digital modulation schemes and the coding-rate of forward error correction (FEC) schemes for satellite digital video communication networks. The comparative study is carried out by computer simulation considering non-linearly amplified, narrow bandwidth satellite channels with adjacent channel interference signals. The proposed system employs an offset QPSK modulation scheme supported by the coding-rate of 7/8 convolutional encoding and Viterbi decoding to realize high-quality and compact spectrum characteristics in non-linear channels. By employing a 32Mbps DPCM video codec, the developed prototype system achieves a post demodulated S/N ratio of higher than 52dB. Moreover, it achieves high protection ratio against co-channel interference than conventional analog FM systems. The optimized digital video transmission system makes it possible to transmit high-quality NTSC video signals over non-linearly amplified narrow bandwidth satellite channels, for example 27MHz or 36MHz bandwidth transponders, with high-security digital encryption.

Under the conditions of Poisson arrivals and single copy transmission, we designed a minimum delay protocol for packet satellite communications. The approach is to assume a hybrid random-access/reservation protocol, derive its average delay and minimize the delay with respect to all tunable system parameters. We found that for minimum average delay,1) a spare reservation should normally but not always be made for each packet transmission.2) all unreserved slots (i.e. Aloha slots) should be filled with a packet rate of one per slot whenever possible. In other words, the utilization of Aloha slots should be maximized.3) an optimum balance between transmitting packets and making reservations before transmission should be maintained.

A non-profit satellite communication network is desired to be configured by using low cost earth stations in the field of education, research and health in the Pacific region. This paper proposes the following concept as one of the tools to realize such a network: (a) A hitchhiker transponder dedicated to the network, and (b) The volunteer group prepares earth stations. A preliminary system design shows that the S band hitchhiker payload is most appropriate and has the weight of about 3kg. The feasibility of manufacturing earth stations by a volunteer group is examined through the experiment using ETS-V satellite. The parameters of the hitchhiker payload are re-examined on the basis of the experience of the experiment.