Demand-Driven Beam Densification in Multi-Beam Satellite Communication Systems

Abstract

Traditional multi-beam Geostationary (GEO) satellite communication systems provide broadband coverage using a regular grid of fixed spot-beams with uniform 4-colour frequency (4CR) reuse scheme. However, user distribution is non-uniform on ground and, consequently, the demand distribution varies geographically. One potential solution to address high-demand regions is to enhance the satellite beam gain only in those areas. In this paper, we propose the so-called demand driven beam densification approach, which leverages the recent advances in on-board active antenna technologies to generate a higher number of beams over high demand hot-spot areas. Increasing the number of beams result in higher beam overlapping which needs to be carefully considered within the beam frequency planning. In this context, we propose a combination of beam densification, where the number of beams and beam placement is optimized targeting the demand satisfaction objective, followed by frequency-color coding strategy for efficient spectrum and interference management. Supporting results based on numerical simulations show the benefits of the proposed demand driven beam densification in terms of demand matching performance compared with non-densified schemes and regular densification schemes.