A study on error rate monitoring in mobile satellite communication systems

Abstract

Mobile satellite communication systems employ the wide area accessibility of a satellite. Digital signal transmission systems which enable communication by highly efficient voice encoding techniques and error correcting techniques, even on low C/N channels, are being studied and developed in many countries. This paper studies error rate monitoring for application to antenna tracking control and transmitting power control in mobile satellite communication systems. A soft decision error correction method, which is expected to be available in a wide range of C/N, is proposed and its performance is clarified theoretically and experimentally. Considering the application to ship antenna tracking control, the monitoring accuracy on fading channels is evaluated experimentally. A simulation experiment is carried out for an electronic tracking control with switching arrays, and the reception level degradation due to tracking error is clarified. Simulation results of transmitting power control against rain attenuation are also given.