Joint Research Programmes 10 May 2012 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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SES and SnT Joint Research Programmes

SnT Partnership Day

10 May 2012 Philippe Francken, SES

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SnT partnership day – 10 May 2012 2

SES – Who we are

 A world-leading telecommunications

satellite operator

 Premier provider of transmission

capacity, related platforms and services worldwide for

• media
• enterprise and telcos
• government and institutions

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Improving our service by expanding

• ur regional teams

One platform, global reach

▲ Global fleet of 50 satellites provides comprehensive coverage ▲ Coverage for 99% of the world’s population ▲ A well-connected teleport infrastructure ▲ Leading direct-to-home(DTH) satellite operator in Europe ▲ Major supplier to cable headends in the Americas ▲ Hosts some of the fastest-growing DTH platforms in emerging markets

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Customers around the world

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▲ SES launched a company-wide innovation initiative in 2010, with the objective to increase our competitiveness by devising and implementing innovative ideas aligned with our strategic plan and business needs. ▲ The initiative includes the various elements of the Satellite Telecommunications ecosystem. ▲ SES has leveraged SnT’s specific expertise in multiple areas related to Applications and Services, Satellite Hybrid Networks, Transmission and Reception Technologies, and Satellite Operations and Satellite System Analysis.

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SES, SnT and innovation

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Future space segment bus and payload architectures Ground segment, hybrid networks… Space technology Fleet planning Transmission and reception techniques Products and services Launch vehicles

Areas of SnT involvement

Satellite

• perations

Frequencies

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SES / SnT innovation projects

▲ PIL To SPELL Conversion

• Context: Satellite control procedures delivered by the manufacturer must be converted

to the scripting language used by SES. Manual conversion of those critical procedures is time consuming and error prone.

• Goal: Save time and guarantee the fidelity of the conversion process.
• Study outcomes:
• Fully automated conversion of Astrium satellite control procedures (delivered in PIL language) into

SPELL procedures, with high level of fidelity and minimizing the level of revalidation.

• First application is ASTRA 2F, expected to launch in September 2012.
• Follow-on activities: "on-the-fly flow-chart generation", "reduction of verification and validation time”.

▲ Payload Optimizer

• Context: Modern geostationary telecommunication payloads include considerable

flexibility to route signals in a multitude of ways. The number of possible combinations makes the determination of optimum payload configurations very challenging.

• Goal: Allow timely determination of optimum payload configurations.
• Study outcomes:
• Development of models, algorithms and tools for the optimal management of complex payloads of

geostationary telecommunication satellites.

• Multiple optimization objectives are pursued (path losses, number of commands, robustness to the

next failure ...) using an Integer Linear Programming Model (ILP).

• First application is ASTRA 2F, expected to launch in September 2012.

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SES / SnT innovation projects

▲ Operational optimization of a Ku multibeam flexible payload

• Context: Multi beam payloads allow significant increase of satellite capacity for point

to point communications. Payload flexibility addresses service demand variation over time and space.

• Goal: Optimize multibeam payload architecture and use of on-board resources.
• Study outcomes:
• Define realistic payload architectures matching operator commercial requirements.
• Develop a system performance evaluation software.
• Evaluate the software results (improvement of the match between offered capacity and

commercial demand).

▲ APEXX – multi-carrier digital equalization / pre-distortion

• Context: Usage of large bandwidth transponders requires multi-carrier operation due

to the limited transmission rate of existing modulators / demodulators. Modulators with pre-distortion techniques exist but only work on a “single carrier basis” and are not suited for the joint transmission of multiple carriers.

• Goal: Allow use of pre-distortion techniques for multi carrier operation.
• Study outcomes:
• Implement pre-distortion and equalization techniques to compensate for the satellite signal

distortions and allow increased throughput in multi-carrier transponder applications.

• Possible applications to Ka-band usage on Astra 2E, 2F, 2G and 5B.

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SES / SnT innovation projects

▲ Cooperative and Cognitive satellite (CO2SAT)

• Context: Frequency bands are allocated for specific purposes to avoid interference

between systems, however frequency resources are not always fully utilized. Satellite transmitters and receivers able to adapt to interference on a context basis could allow better sharing of frequency capacity with terrestrial systems.

• Goal: Apply cognitive and cooperative radio concepts to satellite systems to gain

efficiency through flexible usage of white frequency spots and available capacity.

• Study outcomes:
• Survey of cooperative and cognitive satellite techniques.
• Study of specific satellite applications.
• Performance comparison and complexity evaluation.

▲ MIMO hardware demonstrator

• Context: Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems simultaneously use multiple

data streams on the same frequency, creating multiple paths between transmitter and receiver. This allows improvements in data rate and reliability at the expense of additional processing at the transmitter and receiver. MIMO schemes are widely used with success in wireless terrestrial systems.

• Goal: Apply MIMO antennas to the mobile broadcast DVB-SH standard to increase

spectral efficiency and improve broadcast link performance to mobile users.

• Study outcomes:
• Hardware demonstrator design and development.
• Possible application to broadcast systems in S-band.

Satellite

Mobile terminal GSM, LTE, WiMAX Terrestrial tower Gateway Large satellite antenna

Potential Interference on shared frequency bands

Satellite Modem End user equipment Internet Gateway Interne t

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SES / SnT innovation projects

▲ MLNB – Interference Cancellation ICS-SAT

• Context: A Multi-Input Element Low Noise Block (MLNB) applies

beamforming concepts to satellite reception and allows to perform a coherent combination of signals received at an antenna from multiple

• inputs. This technology allows to electronically null the impact of interferers

located on adjacent satellites and permits to receive multiple satellites within an angular opening range.

• Additional interference cancellation allows to further increase performance

and reliability of the MLNB.

• Goal: Implement interference cancellation system in addition to

beamforming on the basis of an existing MLNB demonstrator and improve further the capacity of interference limited links.

• Study outcomes:
• Development of a demonstrator setup.
• Possible application to C-band VSAT terminals.

X X X Routing

BFC BFC

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9.75 / 10.6 GHz

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Outlook and first conclusions

▲ SES and SnT have developed a fruitful cooperation across a number of research projects. ▲ SnT’s multidisciplinary expertise has allowed to tackle a variety of different problems of direct interest to SES. ▲ Combination of complementary expertise between Academic and Industrial areas is highly valuable to both parties. ▲ Cooperation is expected to continue and develop further.