Payload design for a switchboard in the sky

Abstract

The architecture of an experimental payload with on‐board processing capabilities is described. Since the system is proposed as an experimental one it operates with only four beams in the 20/30 GHz frequency band. Special emphasis is put on the design of the switch and its associated control. The switch operates in a synchronous circuit‐switching manner and provides a throughput of 131 Mb/s. To derive the requirements for the on‐board controller, a process model is established. This model shows that an implementation in a finite state machine will not give enough flexibility. Therefore a microprocessor system is proposed for the controller.