On the Use of Multiple Satellites to Improve the Spectral Efficiency of Broadcast Transmissions

Abstract

We consider the use of multiple co-located satellites to improve the spectral efficiency of broadcast transmissions. In particular, we assume that two satellites transmit on overlapping geographical coverage areas, with overlapping frequencies. We first describe the theoretical framework based on network information theory and, in particular, on the theory for multiple access channels. The application to different scenarios will be then considered, including the bandlimited additive white Gaussian noise channel with average power constraint and different models for the nonlinear satellite channel. The comparison with the adoption of frequency division multiplexing and with the Alamouti space-time block coding is also provided. The main conclusion is that a strategy based on overlapped signals is the most convenient in the case of no power unbalance, although it requires the adoption of a multiuser detection strategy at the receiver.

Diversity Combining Scheme for Time-Varying STBC NGSO Multi-Satellite Systems

“…When it comes to non-terrestrial networks, authors in [13] and [14], [15] employed the STBC technique in their analytical frameworks for SATCOM systems and hybrid satellite-terrestrial networks (HSTNs), respectively, while employing heterogeneous fading channel models. Moreover, the authors in [16] discussed the STBC scheme, in particular, Almouti STBC, which deals with time misalignment in the two satellite transmitters while assuming perfect knowledge of the timing offset at the receiver.…”