Trellis coded modulations with improved non-coherent detection for personal and mobile satellite communications

In this work, the performance of trellis coded modulations with improved non-coherent receivers is examined for application to personal and mobile satellite communications. The schemes are analysed and evaluated in additive white Gaussian noise, Rayleigh, Rician and shadowed faded channels. Evaluations have shown that the improved non-coherent receivers are capable of providing considerable gains in performance as compared to the conventional differential receivers.     

Statistical channel modelling and performance evaluation in satellite personal communications

This paper is concerned with channel modelling for satellite personal communications and with the associated problem of performance evaluation. Channel characteristics for personal communications tend to differ from those traditionally accepted for vehicular communications. In this paper we report on modelling aspects for both wideband and narrowband personal communications. Then we consider performance evaluation for low-altitude earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems in terms of bit error probability and outage probability. To evaluate the outage probability for LEO systems, a tight and simple upper bound is finally provided. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intersegment handover performance in integrated terrestrial satellite systems

To achieve a global cellular network, integration among segments offering different coverage (indoor, outdoor and global) must be pursued. Of course, the possibility to hold the call switching among different segments must be guaranteed. Hence, efficient algorithms to perform intersegment handover (ISHO) must be implemented. The paper aims at analysing some ISHO procedures developed in the frame of some European projects and other proposed in the literature, in a scenario with satellite and terrestrial segments interworking to achieve a worldwide cellular coverage. Performance evaluation will be carried out for different system configurations utilizing a dynamic satellite constellation simulator in the time domain. The impact of the distance user‐gateway on performance will be addressed. For each procedure, the execution delay and its complementary cumulative distribution have been evaluated for different constellation geometries at different distances from the gateway. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influences of external digital environment,markets and terminal price elasticity on personal satellite systems

Although there is no doubt about the feasibility of personal communications via small satellites in low earth orbit, there is considerable uncertainty about the size of the market, whether the specific applications will be business or personal in context, about the market relationship between voice services and data services, and the implications for system design of any information that might be developed on these questions. This paper will develop the concept that the key to understanding low orbit small satellite communications systems is the message delivery time requirement of markets and that the data services market has a widely varying range of acceptable data delivery times. We estimate the distribution of data delivery time versus population of users on a global basis. A second concept to be developed in this paper is that low orbit satellites are in some respects matched to global data delivery applications because of the daylight time zones and natural delays they impose. Using the estimated market size versus message delivery time, we show that there is a significant design implication for the space segment in terms of the number of satellites, the orbit period, and the use of crosslinks. It will be further shown that the difference in complexity of data and voice services with respect to cost argues for the rapid emergence and success of data services. Finally, we will show that a preferred terminal architecture may be an accessory or applique for a personal computer, rather than a small dedicated satellite terminal, based on the extant population of personal computers. A review of the planned terminal architectures of emerging systems reveals that using a personal computer as the basis for a terminal has not yet received wide interest. In particular, the new laptop smaller computers may be the natural catalyst for personal satellite data services in facilitating the terminal.     

卫星通信技术的新发展

就当前卫星通信技术的若干热点作了一些概括和综述。首先,介绍了宽带卫星通信系统的有关概念和发展现状,提出了需解决的主要技术问题,给出了典型应用;然后,在介绍卫星移动通信的国内外发展现状的基础上,研究了系统的特点及需要突破的关键技术;最后,介绍了空间通信网的基本概念,给出了网络组成及功能,分析了需要解决的若干新技术。     

A frequency scanning satellite system for land mobile communications

A frequency scanning system for mobile applications has been assessed for a European mission at L-band. Feasibility evaluations, electrical design and analysis have been performed for both the antenna and the entire repeater. Efforts have also been made to solve accommodation, thermal and mechanical problems, so as to demonstrate the actual feasibility of the frequency scanning concept in user-oriented applications. The very promising results obtained are presented in this paper.     

Results of L-band satellite experiments for personal communications systems

Hand-held personal communications systems will be power limited and restricted to small operating margins. Limited blockage and multipath experiments have been used to develop preliminary fade margins and performance specifications but these have so far ignored effects induced by the satellite. The results reported indicate that diurnal motion of the satellite, or its corollary movement of the antenna can cause signal variations in excess of 9 dB peak-to-peak for low gain antennas. A preliminary finding is that close-in multipath effects are the cause.<>     

Universal personal communications: Emergence of a paradigm shift in the communications industry

It is postulated that today we are in the midst of a major paradigm shift in the communications industry. The essence of this paradigm shift is a transition from today's universal telephone service which has been perfected over the past 100 years, to a future communication service environment, referred to as universal personal communication. Under this new paradigm, communications will be person based in contrast to the predominantly location-based communication environment of today. Societal trends, evolving global standards for communication, regulatory policies, and emergent technologies are seen as the forces driving such a transition. Universal personal communications will be characterized by flexible access to universal services permittingmore enduser control which will result in personalization and customization of such services. Furthermore, the centralized intelligence focus of today's communication networks needs to evolve toward a focus where network intelligence can be migrated to the periphery of the core transport network. The viability of universal personal communication will be critically dependent upon how well it addresses the end customer value proposition. Two key elements of this proposition are transparency of mobility and personalization of service environments. A zonal service environment model which classifies and characterizes these various service environments in terms of common communication parameters is proposed. This model is built around hierarchical structures for both cellular and digital wireless transmission, and can be viewed as critical towards the realization of transparent mobility management and personalization of services.     

Technological developments and socio-economic issues of wireless mobile communications

During the last 10 years, wireless communications can be considered as the fastest growing segment of telecommunications. In fact, mobile telephones have become an everyday accessory for hundreds of million people, and they are increasingly being used in the most developed and many developing countries in the world. Current forecasts indicate that demands for wireless access will exceed the number of fixed access lines by year 2010. This paper examines the technological developments, as well as the worldwide social-economic impacts of wireless mobile communications. More specifically, it gives an overview on the technological developments of wireless mobile communications, describes the evolution towards the next-generation systems, analyzes the reasons for the growth rate of subscribers, and the related social development. As a conclusion, it suggests several solutions in response to dangerous behaviour generated by wireless terminals.     

Key payload technologies for future satellite personal communications: A European perspective

This paper deals with satellite payload architectures adequate for the provision of universal mobile telecommunication services (UMTS) by medium altitude earth and geostationary orbit (MEO and GEO) satellites. The payload concept introduced is based on a transparent transponder with onboard digital signal processing (DSP) operations and digital beamforming at the traffic carrier level (narrowband beamforming). The emphasis of the paper is on key design aspects and technology considerations of the payload processor unit (PPU), which includes multiplexing/demultiplexing and digital beamforming operations, and on the antenna and RF signal handling subsystems. For completeness, a review on the European digital technology is also presented. The development of such a payload architecture is in line with present and planned activities of the European Space Agency (ESA) for MEO and GEO orbit systems, which are also implicitly discussed in the paper.     

COMETS experiments for advanced mobile satellite communications and advanced satellite broadcasting

The Communications and Broadcasting Engineering Test Satellite (COMETS) was developed to evaluate Ka‐band (31/21GHz) and millimetre‐wave (47/44 GHz) advanced mobile satellite communications systems, 21GHz advanced satellite broadcasting systems, and S‐band and Ka‐band inter‐orbit satellite communications systems. COMETS was launched because it was to become the new ‘bridge’ toward advanced satellite communications technologies in the next century, but the launch on 21 February 1998 regretfully failed due to premature shut down of the second stage engine of the H‐II launch rocket. After this accident, the initial low elliptic orbit of COMETS was improved by the apogee engine to a larger elliptic orbit with an apogee altitude of 17711km, a perigee altitude of 473 km, an inclination of 30.1°, and an orbital period of 319 min. Original and modified COMETS experimental plans, countermeasures in earth stations for the orbiting satellite, as well as an overview of the COMETS satellite and ground terminals are presented. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The simulation modelling and performance analysis of low earth orbit satellite communication networks for personal communications

This paper extends previous research efforts related to the simulation performance modelling and analysis of satellite communication networks. Specifically, the use of low earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks for personal communications is examined. Six different satellite constellation configurations are investigated in a packet‐switched operating environment. Performance metrics examined are the end‐to‐end packet delay and the utilization of satellite channels in the dynamic environment. Realistic and accurate models of the physical satellite network and its terrestrial transmitters require that numerous operating characteristics and assumptions be specified. These are based on proposed design requirements of commercial systems, such as Iridium. Via the use of simulation, we show the relative delay and utilization performance of differing satellite network architectures. From these simulation models, mathematical metamodels are derived for the system delays. These innovative models are used to predict the delay performance of different network architectures not previously simulated. Comparison of these metamodels with simulation results show that metamodels provide an accurate means for performance prediction. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

TCRA: a time‐based channel reservation scheme for handover requests in LEO satellite systems

In this paper, we propose a time‐based channel reservation algorithm (TCRA) suitable for handover and call admission control procedures in future mobile satellite systems. These systems are characterized by a high rate of handover attempts which can degrade significantly their performance. Therefore, we propose TCRA, a scheme which guarantees a null handover failure probability by using a channel reservation strategy in the cells to be crossed by the user. The performance of TCRA has been compared to the guaranteed handover (GH) scheme. The TCRA reservation method has the advantage of a better channel utilization by locking the resources only for their expected time of use. A mathematical model has been developed for both schemes, and its results have been validated through simulations. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the design considerations of solid-state power amplifiers for satellite communications: A systems perspective

Conventional solid-state power amplifier (SSPA) design approach isolates radio frequency (RF) design from communication theory. In this paper, a unified SSPA design approach is proposed, which optimizes SSPA parameters (bias voltage and input RF signal power) to minimize total DC power consumption while satisfying received SNR constraint specified by the link budget. The effect of SSPA nonlinearity is quantified by the error vector magnitude measured at its output and the corresponding received SNR degradation is analyzed. Using the quantitative metrics for received SNR, it is possible to evaluate highly nonlinear SSPA classes such as Class-B or deep-Class AB, which are normally not considered in conventional SSPA design approach to be used in satellite communication applications.     

A high-speed transmission method for wireless personal communications

The next-generation wireless personal communications systems are expected to support a wide range of high-quality services that require high data rates. Communicating at high transmission rates over the harsh wireless environment, however, creates many difficult and challenging problems. In this paper, we describe a technique for the high-speed transmission of data in wireless personal communications which we denote as multicode modulation. In this technique, the high-rate bit transmitted data is serial to parallel converted into low-rate bit streams in a similar fashion to multicarrier or multitone modulation. However, in contrast to the multicarrier method, here we propose to modulate each low-rate bit stream using direct-sequence spread-spectrum on a single carrier. It is demonstrated that by selecting the processing gain properly the total required bandwidth will be of the same order as the original high-rate data stream; thereby, gaining the inherent benefit of multipath rejection without expanding the bandwidth of the original high-rate stream. To demonstrate the potential and merits of the proposed method as an alternative technique for high-speed transmission for wireless personal communications, various simulation results over a multipath Rayleigh fading link are presented.Supported in part by the Hong Kong Research Grant Council, Project No. HKUST562/94E and the Hong Kong Telecom Institute of Information Technology, Project No. HKTIIT94/95.EG03.     

基于卫星和集群通信的渔船组网技术与应用

渔业公司船多且作业队伍不固定,通过在每艘船上加装卫星通信终端来解决远洋宽带通信问题成本很高。根据船队分为指挥船与任务船两类,出海作业时每组由一艘指挥船带领若干任务船的特点,在指挥中心和指挥船之间建立卫星通信网络,在指挥船和任务船之间建立移动宽带多媒体通信网络,并辅以组播、路由自动切换等策略。建成后的系统可实现任意船只之间以及船与指挥中心间的宽带互联互通,指挥船与任务船随机组队时,链路可自适应,系统无需重新配置,指挥船与任务船间宽带通信距离大于20 km。该系统可大大降低渔业公司远洋宽带通信网络的建设成本与运营成本。     

卫星通信的近期发展与前景展望

从分析卫星通信的特点入手,综述了卫星通信的卫星平台、可用频率资源和主要相关技术的发展状况,概述了典型的卫星通信系统的性能特点,介绍了卫星通信的应用及产业化发展情况,并展望了发展前景。     

A comparative analysis of frequency scanning and multispot beam satellite systems for mobile communications

A comparative analysis between frequency scanning and multispot satellite systems has been performed in the context of land mobile applications. The aim of the work has been to confirm the effectiveness of the frequency scanning approach, whose technical feasibility has already been proved by the authors in a previous study, also in a comparative investigation with a more conventional satellite configuration. A proper comparative methodology has been established to compare two baseline configurations of the two systems. The analysis has also been rendered parametric, varying some system characteristics such as bandwidth, traffic distributions and linearity requirement. The achieved results are provided and widely commented on in the paper.     

Low complexity concatenated coding schemes for digital satellite communications

A study of reduced complexity concatenated coding schemes, for commercial digital satellite systems with low-cost earth terminals, is reported. The study explored trade-offs between coding gain, overall rate and decoder complexity, and compared concatenated schemes with single codes. It concentrated on short block and constraint length inner codes, with soft decision decoding, concatenated with a range of Reed-Solomon outer codes. The dimension of the inner code was matched to the outer code symbol size, and appropriate interleaving between the inner and outer codes was used. Very useful coding gains were achieved with relatively high-rate, low-complexity schemes. For example, concatenating the soft decision decoded (9,8) single parity check inner code with the CCSDS recommended standard Reed-Solomon outer code gives a coding gain of 4.8dB at a bit error probability of 10^?5, with an overall rate of 0-78.     

An ad hoc networking scheme in hybrid networks for emergency communications

This paper describes an ad hoc networking scheme and routing protocol for emergency communications. The objective of the network is to collect damage assessment information quickly and stably in a disaster. The network is configured with a hybrid wireless network, combining ad hoc networks and a cellular network to maintain connectivity between a base station (BS) and nodes even in a disaster. In the event that a direct link between the BS and a node is disconnected due to damage or obstacles, the node switches to the ad hoc mode, and accesses the BS via neighboring nodes by multihopping. The routing protocol proposed in this paper discovers and builds a route by way of monitoring neighbors’ communications instead of broadcasting a route request packet. The network employs a dedicated medium access control protocol based on TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) for multihopping in ad hoc networks to maintain accessibility and to perform a short delay. Experiments showed that approximately 90% of nodes are capable of reaching the BS within a few hops, even in conditions where only 20% of nodes maintain direct connections to the BS. In addition, the results showed that it is feasible for the network to operate in a short delay for delivering a packet to the BS. However, throughput is not retrieved sufficiently due to the restriction of the access protocol, whereas reachability does improve sufficiently. Therefore, the network is suitable for collecting damage assessment information and transmitting urgent traffic quickly and stably, while the data is restricted to a small amount.