In this paper, we consider a hybrid satellite terrestrial cooperative network with a multi-antenna relay where the satellite links follows the shadowed-Rician fading and the terrestrial link undergoes the correlated Rayleigh fading. Specifically, two different channel state information (CSI) assumptions are considered: 1) full CSI at the relay; 2) full CSI of satellite-relay link and statistical CSI of relay-destination link at the relay. In addition, selection combining (SC) or maximal ratio combining (MRC) are used at the destination to combine the signals from direct link and relay link. By considering the above four cases, we derived the closed-form expressions for the outage probability (OP) respectively. Furthermore, the asymptotic OP expressions at high signal-to-noise (SNR) are developed to reveal the diversity orders and the array gains of the considered network. Finally, numerical results are provided to validate our analytical expressions as well as the system performance for different cases.

Due to the rapid development of small satellite technology and the advantages of LEO satellite with low delay and low propagation loss as compared with the traditional GEO satellite, the broadband LEO constellation satellite communication system has gradually become one of the most important hot spots in the field of satellite communications. Many countries and satellite communication companies in the world are formulating the project of broadband satellite communication system. The broadband satellite communication system is different from the traditional satellite communication system. The former requires a higher transmission rate. In the case of high-speed transmission, if the low elevation constellation is adopted, the satellite beam will be too much, which will increase the complexity of the satellite. It is difficult to realize the low-cost satellite. By comparing the complexity of satellite realization under different elevation angles to meet the requirement of terminal speed through link computation, this paper puts forward the conception of building broadband LEO constellation satellite communication system with high elevation angle. The constraint relation between satellite orbit altitude and user edge communication elevation angle is proposed by theoretical Eq. deduction. And the simulation is carried out for the satellite orbit altitude and edge communication elevation angle.

We have already proposed synchronized spread spectrum code division multiple access (SS-CDMA) for the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) safety confirmation system to be used in times of great disaster. In this system, the satellite reception timings of all uplink signals are synchronized using a transmission timing control method in order to realize high-density user multiple access. An issue that should be addressed in order for this system to be viable is the error that can occur in the satellite reception timing. This error occurs due to the terminal time deviation and the error in calculating the propagation delay to the satellite. In this paper, we measure the terminal time deviation and the propagation delay calculation error at the same time by using the same receivers and evaluate the satellite reception timing error of the uplink signal. By this measurement, it is shown that satellite reception timing error within 50ns can be realized in 99.98% of mobile terminals. This shows that the synchronized SS-CDMA with the transmission timing control method has a potential to realize the QZSS short message system with high-density user multiple access.

A high-rate coding scheme that polar codes are concatenated with low density generator matrix (LDGM) codes is proposed in this paper. The scheme, referred to as polar-LDGM (PLG) codes, can boost the convergence speed of polar codes and eliminate the error floor behavior of LDGM codes significantly, while retaining the low encoding and decoding complexity. With a sensibly designed Gaussian approximation (GA), we can accurately predict the theoretical performance of PLG codes. The numerical results show that PLG codes have the potential to approach the capacity limit and avoid error floors effectively. Moreover, the encoding complexity is lower than the existing LDPC coded system. This motives the application of powerful PLG codes to satellite communications in which message transmission must be extremely reliable. Therefore, an adaptive relaying protocol (ARP) based on PLG codes for the relay satellite system is proposed. In ARP, the relay transmission is selectively switched to match the channel conditions, which are determined by an error detector. If no errors are detected, the relay satellite in cooperation with the source satellite only needs to forward a portion of the decoded message to the destination satellite. It is proved that the proposed scheme can remarkably improve the error probability performance. Simulation results illustrate the advantages of the proposed scheme

The technology advancement of satellite instruments requires increasingly fast interconnection technologies, for which no standardised solution exists. SpaceFibre is the forthcoming protocol promising to overcome the limitation of its predecessor SpaceWire, offering data-rate higher than 1Gbps. However, while several implementations of the SpaceFibre IP already exist, its Network Layer is still at experimental level. This article describes the architecture of an implemented SpaceFibre Routing Switch and provides synthesis results for common FPGAs.

To improve the robustness of the polarization modulation (PM) technique applied in dual-polarized satellite systems, a zero-forcing aided demodulation (ZFAD) method is proposed to eliminate the impairment to the PM from the depolarization effect (DE). The DE elimination is traditionally dependent on the pre-compensation method, which is based on the channel state information (CSI). While the distance between communication partners in satellite systems is so long that the CSI can not be always updated in time at the transmitter side. Therefore, the pre-compensation methods may not perform well. In the ZFAD method, the CSI is estimated at the receiver side and the zero forcing matrix is constructed to process the received signal before demodulating the PM signal. In this way, the DE is eliminated. In addition, we derive the received signal-to-noise ratio expression of the PC and ZFAD methods with the statistical channel model for a better comparison. Theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate the ZFAD method can eliminate the DE effect effectively and achieve a better symbol error rate performance than the pre-compensation method.

For capacity expansion of the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) safety confirmation system, frame slotted ALOHA with flag method has previously been proposed as an access control scheme. While it is always able to communicate in an optimum state, its maximum channel efficiency is only 36.8%. In this paper, we propose adding a reservation channel (R-Ch) to the frame slotted ALOHA with flag method to increase the upper limit of the channel efficiency. With an R-Ch, collision due to random channel selection is decreased by selecting channels in multiple steps, and the channel efficiency is improved up to 84.0%. The time required for accommodating 3 million mobile terminals, each sending one message, when using the flag method only and the flag method with an R-Ch are compared. It is shown that the accommodating time can be reduced to less than half by adding an R-Ch to the flag method.

We propose an approach to allocate bandwidth for a satellite communications (SATCOM) system that includes the recent high-throughput satellite (HTS) with frequency flexibility. To efficiently operate the system, we manage the limited bandwidth resources available for SATCOM by employing a control method that allows the allocated bandwidths to exceed the communication demand of user terminals per HTS beam. To this end, we consider bandwidth allocation for SATCOM as an optimal control problem. Then, assuming that the model of communication requests is available, we propose an optimal control method by combining model predictive control and sparse optimization. The resulting control method enables the efficient use of the limited bandwidth and reduces the bandwidth loss and number of control actions for the HTS compared to a setup with conventional frequency allocation and no frequency flexibility. Furthermore, the proposed method allows to allocate bandwidth depending on various control objectives and beam priorities by tuning the corresponding weighting matrices. These findings were verified through numerical simulations by using a simple time variation model of the communication requests and predicted aircraft communication demand obtained from the analysis of actual flight tracking data.

In this letter, a novel transmission scheme is proposed to eliminate the polarization dependent loss (PDL) effect in dual-polarized satellite systems. In fact, the PDL effect is the key problem that limits the performance of the systems based on the PM technique, while it is naturally eliminated in the proposed scheme since we transmit the two components of the polarized signal in turn in two symbol periods. Moreover, a simple and effective detection method based on the signal's power is proposed to distinguish the polarization characteristic of the transmit antenna. In addition, there is no requirement on the channel state information at the transmitter, which is popular in satellite systems. Finally, superiorities are validated by the theoretical analysis and simulation results in the dual-polarized satellite systems.

This paper proposes a transmission control protocol (TCP) for long distance high-speed wireless communications, including free-space optical communications (FSOC). Extreme high frequency of wireless communications enables high-speed bit rate, but frequent signal error, including burst error, can be a quite severe problem for ordinary high-speed TCPs. To achieve 10Gbps or higher data transfer throughput on FSOC, the proposed TCP (designated “TCP-FSO”) has improved and new features including multi-layer congestion control, retransmission control with packet loss point estimation, delay-based ACK congestion control, and ACK retransmission control. We evaluated data transfer throughput of TCP-FSO and the other TCPs, by throughput model analysis and experiment on real implementation. Obtained results show that TCP-FSO achieves far higher data transfer throughput than other high-speed TCPs. For example, it achieved a thousand times higher throughput than the other high-speed TCPs in a real FSOC environment.

Two wideband circularly polarized (CP) equilateral triangular slot (ETS) antennas are proposed for communication system and the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Radio Occultation (RO) sensor of the GAIA-I microsatellite. These wide slot antennas use the ring slot antenna CP generation method due to their shape. The compact antennas employ truncated corners, grounded equilateral triangular perturbation patch and branched feed line to create CP radiation. A 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) enhancement is achieved by inserting a pair of slits into the ETS. A parametric study on the influence of those shape modifications in reflection coefficient and axial ratio is presented. An ETS antenna for communication system of the GAIA-I is fabricated and measured, which is shown to agree well with its simulated performance by providing CP fractional bandwidth of 52%. An ETS antenna designed for the GNSS RO sensor of GAIA-I delivers 3-dB ARBW of 41.6%. The ETS antenna offers uni-directional radiation by mounting a 3D printed truncated cone reflector underneath which also enhances antenna gain.

Comparing with that of terrestrial networks, the location management in satellite networks is mainly restricted by three factors, i.e., the limited on-board processing (OBP), insufficient link resources and long propagation delay. Under these restrictions, the limited OBP can be smoothened by terrestrial gateway-based location management, the constraint from link resources demands the bandwidth-efficient management scheme and long propagation delay potentially lowers the management efficiency. Currently, the reduction of the management cost has always been the main direction in existing work which is based on the centralized management architecture. This centralized management has many defects, such as the non-optimal routing, scalability problem and single point of failure. To address these problems, this paper explores gateway-based distributed location management schemes for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks. Three management schemes based on terrestrial gateways are proposed and analyzed: loose location management, precise location management, and the grouping location management. The analyses specifically analyze the cost of location queries and show their significant influence on the total cost which includes the location management and query. Starting from the above analysis, we speculate and prove the existence of the optimum scheme in grouping location management, which has the lowest total cost for the query frequency within given range. Simulation results validate the theoretical analysis on the cost and show the feature of latency in location queries, which provide a valuable insight into the design of the distributed location management scheme in satellite networks.

In this letter, a novel on-orbit estimation and calibration method of GPS antenna geometry offsets for attitude determination of LEO satellites is proposed. Both baseline vectors in the NED coordinate system are achieved epoch-by-epoch firstly. Then multiple epochs' baseline vectors are united to compute all the offsets via an UKF for a certain long time. After on-orbit estimation and calibration, instantaneous and accurate attitude can be achieved. Numerical results show that the proposed method can obtain the offsets of each baseline in all directions with high accuracy estimation and small STDs, and effective attitudes can be achieved after antenna geometry calibration using the estimated offsets. The high accuracy give the proposed scheme a strong practical-oriented ability.

In this paper, a spectrum efficient spatial polarized quadrature amplitude modulation (SPQM) scheme for physical layer security in dual-polarized satellite systems is proposed, which uses the carrier's polarization state, amplitude, phase and the polarization characteristics of the transmitting beams as information bearing parameters, which can improve the transmission efficiency and enhance the transmission security at the same time. As we know, the depolarization effect is the main drawback that affects the symbol error rate performance when polarization states are used to carry information. To solve the problem, we exploit an additional degree of freedom, time, in the proposed scheme, which means that two components of the polarized signal are transmitted in turn in two symbol periods, thus they can be recovered without mutual interference. Furthermore, orthogonal polarizations of the transmitting beam are used as spatial modulation for further increasing the throughput. In addition, in order to improve the transmission security, two transmitting beams are designed to transmit the two components of the polarized signal respectively. In this way, a secure transmission link is formed from the transmitter to the receiver to prevent eavesdropping. Finally, superiorities of SPQM are validated by the theoretical analysis and simulation results in dual-polarized satellite systems.

This paper introduces distributed array antenna (DAA) systems that offer high antenna gain. A DAA consists of several small antennas with improved antenna gain. This paper proposes a technique that suppresses the off-axis undesired radiation and compensates the time delay by combining signal processing with optimization of array element positioning. It suppresses the undesired radiation by compensating the delay timing with high accuracy and deliberately generating the inter-symbol interference (ISI) in side-lobe directions. Computer simulations show its effective suppression of the equivalent isotropic radiated power (EIRP) pattern and its excellent BER performance.

Broadband satellites, operating at Ka band and above, are playing more and more important roles in future satellite networks. Meanwhile, rain attenuation is the dominant impairment in these bands. In this context, a dynamic power allocation scheme based on rain attenuation prediction is proposed. By this scheme, the system can dynamically adjust the allocated power according to the time-varying predicted rain attenuation. Extensive simulation results demonstrate the improvement of the dynamic scheme over the static allocation. It can be concluded that the allocated capacities match the traffic demands better by introducing such dynamic power allocation scheme and the waste of power resources is also avoided.

We proposed a new architecture of antenna, transmitter and receiver feeding configuration for small synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that is compatible with 100kg class satellite. Promising applications are constellations of earth observations together with optical sensors, and responsive, disaster monitoring missions. The SAR antenna is a deployable, passive, honeycomb panel antenna with slot array that can be stowed compactly. RF (radio frequency) instruments are in a satellite body and RF signal is fed to a deployable antenna through non-contacting choke flanges at deployable hinges. This paper describes its development strategy and the present development status of the small spaceborne SAR based on this architecture.

Communications satellites have been the primary mission from the early period of Japanese space development and their on-board communication equipment are the core devices to realize satellite communications systems. The technologies for this equipment have been developed to meet the requirements of high capacity and high functionality under the severe satellite-imposed constraints. This paper summarizes progress in on-board communication equipment technologies developed and verified by using Engineering Test Satellites and commercial satellites in Japan and describes their prospects.

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), with its advantages in routing isolation support and mature application, is a promising candidate to integrate satellite systems into the terrestrial IP network. However, with more and more ground stations accessing satellites by BGP, a significant amount of routing overhead can be produced on limited satellite links, especially for geostationary satellite networks with thousands of accessing terminals in extremely large areas. To solve this challenge, multicast transport of BGP was proposed, which takes advantage of the inherent broadcast property of wireless channels. However, its performance can be seriously degraded when interfered with the environment. In this paper, NCSR (Network Coding for Satellite network BGP Routing transport) [1] is explored in depth. Unlike existing counterparts, NCSR pays more attention to the lossy space links and can achieve reliability with more bandwidth savings. A greedy based coding algorithm is proposed to realize the network coding operation. To demonstrate the efficiency of NCSR, we conduct theoretical analyses and extensive simulations in typical scenarios of satellite systems. Simulation results show that NCSR can greatly reduce the bandwidth usage while achieving comparable latency. Discussions on practical considerations when applying network coding method for reliability assurance are also presented in detail.

Powerful jammers are able to disable consumer-grade global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers under normal operating conditions. Conventional anti-jamming techniques based on the time-domain are unable to effectively suppress wide-band interference, such as chirp-like jammer. This paper proposes a novel anti-jamming architecture, combining wavelet packet signal analysis with adaptive filtering theory to mitigate chirp interference. Exploiting the excellent time-frequency resolution of wavelet technologies makes it possible to generate a reference chirp signal, which is basically a “de-noised” jamming signal. The reference jamming signal then is fed into an adaptive predictor to function as a refined jamming signal such that it predicts a replica of the jammer from the received signal. The refined chirp signal is then subtracted from the received signal to realize the aim of anti-jamming. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in combating chirp interference in Galileo receivers. We achieved jamming-to-signal power ratio (JSR) of 50dB with an acquisition probability exceeding 90%, which is superior to many anti-jamming techniques based on the time-domain, such as conventional adaptive notch filters. The proposed method was also implemented in an software-defined GPS receiver for further validation.