SERP - Innovate SpectrAl efficienct receivers for saTellite communications

The  future  growth  of  capacity  offerings  in  satellite  networks  highly  depends  on  the  efficient  use  of  scarce  system resources, in particular the available frequency spectrum. In this respect, the frequency reuse in multi-beam satellite networks has already created a breakthrough allowing significant increase in the system capacity. Furthermore, theoretical investigations indicate that relaxing the signal orthogonality constraints, for instance in terms of frequency or symbol timing, open up new dimensions in the waveform design that allow for the increase of the achievable rates.

Several  on-going  and  past  ESA  activities  have  investigated  advanced  interference  mitigation techniques. Analytical results assuming ideal conditions indicate that substantial increase in the capacity can be obtained. Several interference mitigation techniques have been identified to allow for advanced detection techniques at the receiver in order to remove the interference or detect additional useful information. Preliminary simulations results shows promising enhancement in the system performance. Unlike the conventional transmission schemes where the interference between adjacent transmitted symbols or adjacent carriers are regarded as a source of impairment, in this novel approach the interference is tolerated, thus resulting in higher transmission rates per carrier and/or smaller carrier spacing, which overall improve the spectral efficiency.