SC-OFDM, a Low-Complexity Technique for High Performance Satellite Communications

Abstract

Single-Carrier Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (SC-OFDM) is a transmission technique particularly suitable for satellite transmission due to its low envelope variations and to the advantages brought by its natural compatibility with zero roll-off. Moreover, low complexity per-carrier equalization is possible in the frequency domain. This paper proves the high performance of SC-OFDM transmission over satellite in different use cases and compares this performance with state of the art techniques such as DVB-SX transmission.

Filter bank‐based multiple access in next‐generation satellite uplinks: A DVB‐RCS2‐based experimental study

“…In Deepak and Ali, the idea of Yuen et al was detailed, this time with CFO included, whose compensation was addressed in Deepak and Ali . In Valette et al, the good spectral confinement of FBMC is exploited to add spectral shaping (exploiting the excess bandwidth) in order to reduce PAPR (since low PAPR and steep cutoff are conflicting requirements).…”

“…Although DVB‐RCS2 adopts a Multi‐Frequency Time Division Multiple Access (MF‐TDMA) scheme, it also recognizes the potential gains from an evolution to a SC‐FDMA‐based UL . Potential gains (eg, in power and spectral efficiency) of SC‐FDMA over SC‐TDMA and OFDMA have been also demonstrated in previous studies and SC‐FDMA has shown promise to significantly improve upon the existing 4K/8K broadcasting standard . The results of Dimitrov et al et al suggest that SC‐FDMA is preferable to TDMA and OFDMA for the UL and that FBMC is appealing in view of its advantages in dealing with asynchronous access and flexible spectrum allocation, hence indirectly pointing to SC‐FBMA as a promising solution for SatCom UL.…”

A State-Space Approach for Tracking Doppler Shifts in Radio Inter-Satellite Links

“…Power constraints and efficient amplification requirements favours single-carrier (SC) modulations instead of the more popular OFDM schemes. Notably, SC combined with frequency-domain equalization (SC-FDE) if dealing with time-dispersive channels [28]- [31]. In fact, for terrestrial mobile communications SC-FDE has been advocated as a particularly promising scheme for the uplink (i.e., when the communication signal goes from the mobile terminal to the base station) [32].…”