Evaluation of DVB-S2 Performance on an Experimental Ka-band Satellite Link in the UK

Abstract

This paper reports on a preliminary study using EutelSat Hotbird 13A (previously known as Hot Bird 6) beacon data at 19.7 GHz and 29.5 GHz (scaled frequency) to evaluate the performance of the 2 nd Generation of Digital Video Broadcasting via Satellite (DVB-S2) on an experimental Ka-band (26-40 GHz) satellite link in the UK. Longterm statistics of rain and atmospheric attenuation were derived from a period of one year's measurements made in Pontypridd, South Wales and in Chilbolton, England, at 19.7 GHz. This is supplemented by meteorological measurements at both sites, and multi-frequency radiometer measurements at Chilbolton. A hypothetical Ka-band satellite broadcast link between Pontypridd and Chilbolton has been designed using the DVB-S2 technology, where the system is configured to use 29.5 GHz as the uplink frequency while 19.7 GHz is used as the downlink frequency. The downlink attenuation time series is based entirely on measured data, whereas the synthetic uplink attenuation time series were a sum of 1 Research Student, School of Engineering, leshan.uggalla@southwales.ac.uk, Not a Member 2 Head of Chilbolton Observatory, Rutherford Appleton Lab., jon.eastment@stfc.ac.uk, Not a Member 3 Professor, School of Engineering, ifiok.otung@southwales.ac.uk, Not a Member Downloaded by KUNGLIGA TEKNISKA HOGSKOLEN KTH on August 7, 2015 | http://arc.aiaa.org | International Communications Satellite Systems Conferences (ICSSC)the computed and scaled attenuation from the measurements at 19.7 GHz. The observed link availability, modulation scheme usage and data throughput in the Ka-band region are calculated and presented. The paper discusses these findings in detail for different satellite link designs, and determines the effectiveness of the various link designs in terms of their availability and data throughput. According to the findings of link outages, a new method has been proposed in order to increase the link availability by integrating Time Diversity (TD) and Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC) into the existing DVB-S2 standard. The integration of TD and MRC into DVB-S2 provides the potential to continue delivering services at below the currentlyrecommended lowest acceptable carrier-to-noise (C/N) threshold in the event of severe weather conditions.