The integration phase of ALPHASAT Technology Demonstration Payload #5 Mission Segment

Cornacchini, C.; Vernucci, A.; Codispoti, G.; Russo, Enrico Di

doi:10.1109/estel.2012.6400190

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The Q/V band TDP payload is composed by two self-standing payloads [22], [23]: Therefore, the payload is capable to realize full-duplex communication between the station located in Tito Scalo and, alternatively, the station located in Spino D'Adda or Graz.…”

Section: Tdp 5 System Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Satellite communication and propagation experiments through the alphasat Q/V band Aldo Paraboni technology demonstration payload

Rossi

Sanctis

Ruggieri

et al. 2016

IEEE Aerosp. Electron. Syst. Mag.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

INTRODUCTIONCurrent high-throughput satellite (HTS) systems for broadbanddistributed user access are designed following two main concepts: C The use of Ka band radio frequency (RF) links both for the forward and for the return link; this choice is due to the congestion of lower frequency bands and to the relatively large bandwidth available in the Ka band. Moreover, the RF technology in the Ka band is mature [1], [2].C The use of multispot coverage: this technique is largely applied to increase the system throughput through frequency reuse and system reconfigurability [2], [3].HTS systems are dimensioned to support an aggregated total capacity (considering both forward and return links) of a tenth of a gigabit per second over a coverage area as large as Europe, with a single spot capacity of hundreds of megabits per second [3].As a matter of fact, HTSs still offer much less bandwidth per user with respect to the terrestrial broadband networks. To achieve very high throughput towards "terabit connectivity," bandwidth efficient modulation schemes have to be used [4], [5]. However, because there is a trade-off between bandwidth efficiency and power efficiency in modulation schemes, high bandwidth efficiency requires more transmission power that is a limited resource in satellite systems.Therefore, an important breakthrough is needed in terms of bandwidth availability. The Q/V band (40-50 GHz) seems to offer very promising perspectives, being unused for commercial systems and offering a large part of the spectrum allocated for satellite services [1]. In this frame, the medium-term HTS system architecture is based on the use of a Ka-band user link to maintain the user terminal compatibility with the current system and a Q/V band feeder link [4]- [7].This solution is particularly attractive for the following reasons:C The Q/V band spectrum allocated for fixed satellite service is very large, about 5 GHz of near-continuous bandwidth both for uplink and downlink.C The whole Ka-band spectrum (that is currently allocated both for feeder and user links of the HTS systems) will be available for user link, increasing the bandwidth allocated to the user segment. This will require a rethinking of International Telecommunication Union frequency allocation and a strong frequency coordination activity.It is well-known that the atmospheric propagation impairments at extremely high frequency (EHF) bands (30-300 GHz) are severe, not only when rain events occur but also in the presence of clouds. The EHF electromagnetic radiation that propagates through the atmosphere is subject to absorption, scattering, depolarization, and fast fluctuations of amplitude and phase (scintillation) that have to be carefully investigated. Moreover, some mitigation techniques have to be analyzed and properly tuned to realize an efficient transmission. To counteract rain fading effects, high static link margins can be considered to ensure a minimum service outage duration. However, setting large link margins is in contrast with technology limitations of s...

show abstract

Section: Tdp 5 System Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Satellite communication and propagation experiments through the alphasat Q/V band Aldo Paraboni technology demonstration payload

Rossi

Sanctis

Ruggieri

et al. 2016

IEEE Aerosp. Electron. Syst. Mag.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The coherent receiver acquires signal amplitude and phase with 16 Hz sampling rate, allowing a complete characterization of fast fluctuations because of tropospheric turbulence. The principal ground stations' architecture is fully described in Cornacchini et al…”

Section: The Alphasat Ground Stations In Italymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Alphasat Aldo Paraboni propagation experiment: Measurement campaign at the Italian ground stations

Riva

Luini

D’Amico

et al. 2018

Satell Commun Network

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary Terabit capacity and very high data rates are required for the near‐future broadband satellite communication systems, mainly for multimedia services. The increased capacity can be obtained by using the larger bandwidth available at higher frequency bands, like Ka and Q/V. However, severe detrimental atmospheric effects impair radio waves at these bands, which require the extensive use of fade mitigation techniques, such as link power control, site diversity, or on‐board adaptive power allocation. The Alphasat Aldo Paraboni propagation experiment was designed and supported by the Italian Space Agency, and implemented by the European Space Agency, to better characterize the atmospheric propagation channel at Ka band and Q band, to support the design of future satellite systems. In Italy, 3 ground stations have been installed and are acquiring the Alphasat beacon signals: the 2 ASI main ground stations in Tito Scalo (Southern Italy) and Spino d'Adda (Northern Italy) and the La Sapienza‐FUB station in Roma (Central Italy). The 3 stations cover quite distant locations in Italy, with different climatic characteristics. This paper describes the main features of the experimental setup in the above stations and presents some examples of measurements and results.

show abstract

“…One of the main elements of the Aldo Paraboni Payload IMS is the ground station, which is composed of different subsystems described below and represented in the top level block diagram depicted in Figure : Ground Station Front‐End Subsystem (GSFS) consisting of the antenna element (AE) and of the infrastructure element (IE). The AE includes the antenna reflector and the monopulse tracking system, the RF passive hardware, and the Ka and Q band LNA; the IE is composed of the antenna basement and interfacility link allowing the installation of all the cables (details on signal harness element and electrical harness element are reported below) needed to interface the GSFS, as well as the subsequent back‐end subsystem, with the equipment room (ER). Ground Station Back‐End Subsystem (GSBS) that mainly includes the V band HPAE and the converter set consisting in the down and up converters and of the relative control and monitoring unit (CMU). Baseband Subsystem (BBS) that basically includes the base band equipment needed to perform all the required measurements to gather the experimental data, installed in the ER. Ancillary Equipment Subsystem (AES) includes different elements: the radiometers, the pluviometer, and the software elements to manage the GS equipment and the data exchange among the ground stations and the control centers (MCC, ECC/C, ECC/P).…”

Section: Aldo Paraboni Payload Ims Main Element Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on the described functionalities, the BBS consists of three main functional blocks: the element for the communication experiments (CEE) based on a DVB‐S2 Tx‐Rx system (for details, refer to Cornacchini et al), the element for propagation experiments (PEE) that monitors the quality of link, and finally the element to manage the baseband (BBME) that is responsible for communication between CEE and PEE and the ancillary LMCE/LSDME. The BBS is installed in the ER, and it is provided by space engineering.…”

Section: Aldo Paraboni Payload Ims Main Element Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alphasat Aldo Paraboni Payload Italian mission segment

Cornacchini

Bernardo

Falzini

et al. 2018

Satell Commun Network

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary In the framework of the ASI Q/V band program, the “Aldo Paraboni” Payload embarked on Alphasat is devoted to the exploitation and the investigation on communications at the Q/V frequency band. The operation of this experimental payload allowed to demonstrate the potential of advanced broadband satellite communications at the Q/V frequency bands and represents an important step toward the development of future High Throughput Satellite (HTS) systems. The Italian Mission Segment (IMS) represents the ground infrastructure which allows to perform communications experiments (propagation impairment mitigation techniques (PIMT)) at 40/50 GHz (Q/V band) and propagation experiments at both 20 GHz (Ka band) and 40 GHz (Q band) by operating the Aldo Paraboni Payload. The IMS was developed under the Italian Space Agency contract and developed by the Italian industry in accordance with the requirements defined for communications and propagation experiments by two principal investigators, appointed by the Italian Space Agency. The IMS consists of two transmitting/receiving ground stations and three control centers, while the space segment is represented by the Aldo Paraboni Payload, financed by Italy through the ARTES‐8 Program, developed by the European Space Agency and implemented by Italian space industries. The Aldo Paraboni Payload, also called technology demonstration payload #5 (TDP#5), has been embarked as piggyback on Alphasat satellite, an INMARSAT Commercial Telecommunication Geosynchronous satellite successfully launched on 25 July 2013, which uses the ESA‐developed Alphabus Platform and embarks other four technology demonstration payloads (TDPs). This paper presents an overview of the overall system composing the IMS, the functional architecture, main subsystems, and specific features related to the communication and propagation experiments. The ground station validation is also described, together with the description of the system test campaign, performed for functional and performance verification of the IMS. The campaign allowed to test the Q/V band communication functions and to perform the propagation experiment verification, operating the payload in loopback mode and in cross mode.

show abstract

The integration phase of ALPHASAT Technology Demonstration Payload #5 Mission Segment

Cited by 4 publications

References 1 publication

Satellite communication and propagation experiments through the alphasat Q/V band Aldo Paraboni technology demonstration payload

Satellite communication and propagation experiments through the alphasat Q/V band Aldo Paraboni technology demonstration payload

The Alphasat Aldo Paraboni propagation experiment: Measurement campaign at the Italian ground stations

Alphasat Aldo Paraboni Payload Italian mission segment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About