In this paper, outage performance of a turbo-coded CDMA system is analyzed and simulated in a multiple-beam satellite channel. From the simulation results, it is confirmed that turbo coding provides considerable coding gain over an uncoded system. And, it is demonstrated that Max-Log-MAP decoding algorithm is most promising in terms of performance and complexity.

In this paper, we propose a generalized frequency assignment algorithm to minimize the intermodulation products caused by nonlinear amplification in satellite transponder. We also analyze the performance of proposed algorithms in terms of C/IM and execution time. Most of the published algorithms are too restrictive to be applied to the frequency planning of many realistic systems that are usually characterized by multi-level and/or multi-bandwidth. In developing the proposed "TDTI algorithm," we utilized and modified basic concepts of Okinaka's DELINS-INSDEL algorithm to extend its applicability from one-level systems to more general systems. We also propose a modified version of TDTI algorithm called "WTDI-SDELINS" to circumvent the problem of relatively long execution time.

As noncoherent direct sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) mobile satellite communications, two typical transmission schemes are compared; one is a quasi-synchronous differential BPSK (QS-DBPSK) where orthogonal signals are used for reducing the multiple access interference and the other is M-ary orthogonal signaling (MOS) scheme where orthogonal signals are used for exploiting more efficient modulation. The performances are evaluated in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and shadowed Rician fading (SRF) channels and the effects of timing misalignments in the QS-DBPSK system and the amount of Doppler shifts of a SRF channel are investigated. The results show that MOS much outperforms QS-DBPSK in the region of low system loading up to about 50% and a precise chip synchronization is required for QS-DBPSK. In a SRF channel, it is also shown that QS-DBPSK much outperforms MOS in a slow fading channel but MOS has a performance gain against the large Doppler shift.

FDMA/TDMA non-geostationary earth orbit satellite systems (Non-GEOS) generally require a pre-planned pool of radio resource, i.e., frequency and time slot plan (FTSP), for each gateway earth station (GES) prior to the real-time channel assignment by the multiple GES's sharing the resources harmoniously. The time-variant nature of those systems implies that a dynamic FTSP planning method is crucial to the operation to cope with the time-variant traffic demand and the inter-beam interference condition. This paper proposes and compares three algorithms (Serial-numbering, DP-based, and Greedy algorithms) mixed with two strategies (concentrated- and spread-types) for the resource allocation. The numerical evaluation demonstrates that Greedy algorithm with the spread-type strategy is very effective and promising with feasible calculation time for the FTSP generation.

To achieve high link availability at Ka-band geosynchronous satellite communication systems, an adaptive CDMA scheme as a rain fade countermeasure is proposed. The proposed adaptive CDMA scheme reserves and shares orthogonal sequences to countermeasure a rain fade. In the adaptive CDMA scheme, the base station allocates a set of orthogonal sequences to each user, and the number of sequences in a set is determined by the amount of rain attenuation. A symbol repetition technique is also used to compensate signal energy loss due to the rain fade. Our results show that when the base station has 64 free orthogonal codes, the adaptive CDMA scheme can save on its power by 4.2 dB compared to conventional CDMA scheme. The occupation rate of codes also shows that the adaptive CDMA can support multiple users simultaneously in even severe rain fade condition.

We propose a unique word detection scheme having the correction of the phase ambiguity that remains in the output of a carrier recovery circuit for QPSK systems. The performance of the proposed scheme is analyzed by obtaining the probability generating function (PGF) for the output of the detector. The PGF is obtained from the z-transform of the probability density function (PDF) for each matched symbol with the reference symbol and by using the characteristics at this time that the random variables for matched symbols are independent and identically distributed. Then the total PGF for a unique word is obtained from powering the PGF for the individual symbol. From the total PGF, the length of a UW and the threshold value for detection can be obtained with a detection probability defined in a required system specification.

This paper presents the bit error rate (BER) upper bounds for trellis coded asymmetric 8PSK (TC-A8PSK) system using the Ka-band satellite in the rain fading environment. The probability density function (PDF) for the rain fading random variable can be theoretically derived by assuming that the rain attenuation can be approximated to a log-normal distribution and the rain fading parameters are calculated by using the rain precipitation data from the Crane global model. Furthermore, we analyze the BER upper bounds of TC-A8PSK system according to the number of states in the trellis diagram and the availability of channel state information (CSI). In the past, Divsalar and Simon has analyzed the BER upper bounds of 2-state TCM system in Rician fading channels; however, this paper is the first to analyze the BER upper bounds of TCM system in the rain fading channels. Finally, we summarize the dominant six factors which are closely related to the BER upper bounds of TC-A8PSK satellite system in the rain fading channel as follows: (1) frequency band, (2) rain intensity, (3) elevation angle, (4) bit energy to noise ratio, (5) asymmetric angle, and (6) availability of CSI.

One of the basic GPS features is its inherent anti-jamming (AJ) characteristics based on great processing gain as a result of using direct sequence spread spectrum (DS-SS) technique. For calculated jamming threshold for GPS receivers operating with L1 C/A, L1 P(Y) and L2 P(Y) signals, jamming range has been analyzed with respect to the characteristic jamming signals and under various effective radiated power of jamming signals. The tests of C/A GPS receiver jamming resistance on different jamming strategies, during the tracking and acquisition phase have been performed. The influence of jamming strategy on jamming efficiency has been proved. At the same time AJ characteristics of GPS receiver have been checked.

We have developed a map-based approach that enables us to efficiently extract information about man-made objects, such as buildings, from aerial images. An image is matched with a corresponding map in order to estimate the object information in the image (i. e. , presence, location, shape, size, kind, and surroundings). This approach is characterized by using a figure contained in a map as an object model for a top-down (model-driven) analysis of an object in the aerial image. We determined the principal steps of the map-based approach needed to extract object information and update a map. These steps were then applied to obtain the locations of missing buildings and the heights of existing buildings. The extraction results of experiments using aerial images of Kobe City (taken after the 1995 earthquake) show that the approach is effective for automatically extracting building information from aerial images and for rapidly updating map data.

In this paper, we analytically study the effects of overlap and overlay structure on the quality of service (QoS) of Low Earth-Orbital Satellite (LEOS) communication systems. We consider two-layered overlay of cells and intentional overlap of neighboring small cells. In order to measure the QoS, the probabilities of rejection of a newly arrived call (blocking) and forced termination due to failure of a handover (call dropping) are derived. In addition to these measures, the largest traffic intensity which guarantees the required blocking and dropping probabilities is also used.

Satellite-terrestrial (ST) networks, in which many nodes are interconnected by both satellite and terrestrial networks, can efficiently support multicast services. This is because satellite broadcasting is suitable for a large multicast group and a terrestrial network is suitable for a small multicast group. An ST network requires a multicast routing algorithm that can select the appropriate satellite and terrestrial routes. Conventional dynamic routing algorithms for terrestrial networks cannot construct an efficient multicast routing tree because they basically select a less-expensive route when a node is added. We have developed a dynamic routing algorithm, a virtual-cost-based algorithm, for ST networks that selects the route to use according to the multicast group size when a node is added to the group. Simulation showed that the proposed algorithm is advantageous when nodes are added to or removed from the multicast group during steady-state simulation.

VLBI is an important application of ATM technology because it can transmit huge amounts of data. A single VLBI experiment typically generates data (which must be recorded and transported until they are cross-correlated) of tera-bit order at each separated observing site. Conventional VLBI not only requires manpower but also limits the maximum observation data rate. Therefore, a realtime VLBI using a private ATM network was developed recently, but it could not be utilized for regular VLBI experiment. Since utilization of public ATM is most realistic solution for realtime VLBI between ordinary observing sites, we have developed an interface equipment that connects VLBI observation and processing equipment to a public ATM network and demonstrated a successful experiment. This equipment supports VLBI's standard bit rates as 128 Mbps and 256 Mbps, though data rate for user's payload in 155.52 Mbps (STM-1/OC-3) ATM network is actually only 119.5 Mbps. It can easily step to higher networks as 622 Mbps.

The design of effective traffic and resource management policies is a key issue in the deployment of ATM-satellite systems. This paper proposes a technique of call admission control and dynamic resource management to support ATM traffic classes in satellite environments. The effectiveness of the strategy is assessed by referring to the EuroSkyWay multimedia satellite platform, based on Ka-band payload and on-board processing. The main advantage is the effective exploitation of the satellite bandwidth by means of the statistical multiplexing of traffic sources and the guarantee of QoS provisioning to both real-time and non real-time, constant and variable bit rate sources.

We propose a coherent automatic gain control (AGC) scheme with low complexity for high-speed satellite communications. A mathematical model for the gain detector and a stochastic difference equation are established to investigate the characteristics of the scheme. Based on the random process theory with the equation, we analyze the acquisition and tracking performance of the AGC loop. It has been verified that the results by the analytical method agree with the simulation results obtained in the presence of small amount of phase offsets in the carrier recovery circuits for the QPSK system. Though the analytical results deviate from the simulation results slightly in the presence of maximum phase offset, they give us the insight in analyzing the characteristics of the proposed scheme.

This paper proposes a coherent detection scheme that can reduce the estimation errors of the carrier phase due to Gaussian noise in communication systems where pilot symbol assisted modulation is employed to compensate for Rician fading distortion. This paper introduces two functions in addition to conventional fading estimation methods using Wiener interpolation, etc. The first is the weighted average function for reducing the estimation errors of the fading distortion detected by pilot symbols. The second is the moving average function for estimating the phase errors that are residual after being compensated for by the estimated fading distortion. This paper evaluates the bit error rate (BER) performance for the proposed method in both Rician fading channel and additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel by computer simulation. Simulation results verify that the BER performance of the proposed method is superior to that of a conventional method in both Rician fading channel and AWGN channel. Simulation results also confirm that the degradation of the BER performance of the proposed method is only 0.1 dB in AWGN channel and only 0.3 dB in Rician fading channel compared with the theoretical curves even if we reduce the number of computations by simplifying the calculation of interpolation coefficients optimized for Wiener interpolation.

This paper proposes a novel spread spectrum (SS) modem for random access satellite communication systems that employs digital matched filters. The proposed modem employs a parallel structure to ensure detection of packet arrival. Code timing detection with a combination of a coarse detector and a fractional error detector reduces the sampling rate while maintaining the BER performance. An in-symbol pilot multiplexing scheme is also proposed for fast and stable carrier synchronization with a simple hardware. A performance evaluation shows that the proposed modem achieves the UW miss-detection probability of 10-4 at the Eb/No of 0 dB. The overall BER performance achieved in experiments well agrees simulation.

In this letter, the probability of error performance improvements by rain fade countermeasure techniques is analyzed in a Ka-band geostationary satellite communication system using synchronous CDMA scheme, when power control and macrodiversity are used as rain fade countermeasures. Numerical results show that the composite power control plus macroscopic selection diversity system is better than that of utilizing only one technique as a countermeasure of rain fading.

To realize S-band mobile satellite communications and broadcasting systems, the onboard mission system and equipment were designed for the Japanese Engineering Test Satellite VIII. The system performs voice communications using handheld terminals, high-speed data communications, and multimedia broadcasting through a geostationary satellite. To enhance system efficiency and flexibility, the onboard mission system features phased-array-fed reflector antennas with large antenna diameter and baseband switching through onboard processors. Configurations and performance of the subsystems and key onboard equipment, large deployable reflectors, feed arrays, beam forming networks and onboard processors, are presented. The S-band mobile systems and onboard equipment will be verified through in-orbit experiments scheduled for 2002.

In this paper, performance degradation of satellite broadcasting receiving antenna systems due to weather conditions is examined by measuring their G/T continuously. We show that an offset parabolic reflector antenna of smaller aperture tends to be less affected by weather conditions.

The onboard antenna beam forming network (BFN) of the next-generation communication satellites must offer multiple beam forming and beam steering. The conventional BFN, which directly controls the array elements, is not suitable for a large-scale array antenna because of the difficulty of BFN control. This paper proposes a new BFN configuration that consists of three/four-way variable power dividers and a Butler matrix (FFT circuit). This BFN can offer continuous beam steering with fewer variable components. By introducing new techniques based upon excluding FFT periods and power evaluations by definite integration, the deviation in beamwidth is reduced by 75% or more and the maximum sidelobe level is improved by 10 dB or more.