Future High Throughput Satellite Systems

Hector Fenech, Senior Member, IEEE, Alessia Tomatis, Sonya Amos, Viphakone Soumpholphakdy,
Dimitri Serrano-Velarde
Eutelsat, 70 rue Balard, 75502 Paris Cedex 15, France, +33 1 53 98 48 28
hfenech@eutelsat.fr, atomatis@eutelsat.fr, samos@eutelsat.fr, vsoumpho@eutelsat.fr,
dserrano@eutelsat.fr

Abstract— KA-SAT represents the first of the current access to homogeneous broadband services.
generation of High Throughput Satellites (HTS). With a total EADS Astrium was the prime contractor for the satellite and
system capacity of over 70 Gbit/s and the capability of supporting the 6.2-ton satellite was launched December 26, 2010 and
up to a million users, it delivers services akin to those provided by
the terrestrial ADSL2+. Whilst supporting services that include
entered commercial operation on May 31, 2011. KA-SAT
corporate networks and Satellite News Gathering (SNG), KA- employs state-of-the-art payload technology with a current
SAT has primarily been designed for the consumer broadband spacecraft platform. This minimises development and
market. In general, the consumer tends to be rather technology qualification effort and maintains typical program schedules
agnostic and the bench-mark is expected to remain the terrestrial while maximizing the capacity for its service area.
services. This implies that as fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) becomes Designed to reduce the cost of service provision in terms of
more prolific, it will become the yardstick for HTS systems. This
is a daunting prospect for the satellite communication system cost per Mbit/s, it is the result of a complex optimisation
architect since FTTH represents a bit rate approximately an process that takes into account a number of system constraints
order of magnitude more than that of ADSL2+ for about the same (operational issues pertaining to the complete communications
cost. system, performance, satellite accommodation, system cost,
This paper investigates three key areas: 1) The tradeoffs satellite mass and satellite thermal issues). KA-SAT also
between power and spectrum in an HTS system and how includes the associated ground infrastructure comprising a
spectrum is the dominant contributor; 2) Regulatory aspects in
network of eight ground stations with two backup stations
developing such systems; 3) How a top level forecast can be
generated for HTS systems that can provide a significant increase connected to the Internet backbone and the Network
in system capacity considering available spectrum, the enabling Operations Centre (NOC). Several innovative techniques have
technologies and the scheduling. resulted in two granted patents [1, 2] and another five patent
applications.
Index Terms— Capacity, Spectrum, High Throughput HTS systems can be classified by the overall capacity they
Satellites, HTS, Ka-band, Q/V-band can provide, as represented in Fig 1. The first HTS generation
offered up to a few tens of Gbit/s. The second generation
I. INTRODUCTION offers approximately one hundred Gbit/s while the third
KA-SAT represents the first of a new generation of Ka-band generation will offer a few hundreds of Gbit/s. Thus KA-SAT,
High-Throughput Satellite (HTS) systems for broadband ViaSat 1 and Jupiter can be considered to be in the second
access services including consumer services (e.g. triple-play) generation.
and professional services (e.g. TV broadcasting). It includes It can be expected that the next generation HTSs will
the largest service-area (82 spots) achieving a 20-times consequently push for an increase in the system capacity and
frequency-reuse factor. The system uses small terminals to subsequently, an optimisation of the satellite and system
deliver ADSL-like services at ADSL costs to a million users resources in order to make available higher capacities to the
using adaptive coding and modulation. The KA-SAT system consumer while providing a quality comparable to FTTH.
provides 70Gbit/s of capacity: the first satellite with this Spectrum and power are the parameters that allow us to
capacity in the world. increase the satellite capacity in such systems, but in the
Compared to Ku-band, KA-SAT reduces both the service scenarios studied, spectrum is a much more powerful
and the terminal costs by an order of magnitude. This opens a contributor. Spectrum allocation and its potential impact in
whole range of services that were not previously economically increasing the broadband capacity of next generation HTS
viable. KA-SAT is a game-changer that truly eliminates the systems is also considered. In order to determine and predict a
digital divide within Europe and beyond. Everybody, top level system, dimensioning has been performed in a
irrespective of distance from the telephone exchange, has

978-1-4673-4688-7/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE

 parametric fashion, unconstrained to today’s state-of-the-art multispot coverage with a high order of frequency re-use. The
space technology. This allows us to establish the most efficient required service area is composed of a lattice of tessellated
enabling technology and therefore the greatest increase in hexagons which is normally implemented via circular
capacity for a given change in technology. overlapping spots. This better exploits the performance from
the satellite antenna and is crucial to improving the air
interface and/or increasing the system capacity.
At the satellite antenna level, the colour scheme defines a
cluster of adjacent spots where the entire spectrum on both
polarisations is used. The cluster typically includes three or
four spots. In a four-colour scheme, each colour is associated
with a frequency band and polarisation so that frequency re-
use is implied. At the antenna system level, a cluster of four
cells use all the four spectral resources, increasing the C/I
performance with respect to a three-colour/antenna cell
structure. Fig 2 illustrates the Forward Link functionalities and
is discussed in more detail in [3] whilst the payload details of
Ka-Sat are given in [4].

Fig. 1. Capacity performance for various satellites and the potential of

second generation HTS systems.

Whilst the emphasis is on the payload as the heart of the

satellite communication system, a preliminary spacecraft
dimensioning is also performed in order to address aspects
pertaining to platform and launcher requirements. As can be
imagined for this type of system study, a significant number of
assumptions have been taken, including the reference KA-SAT
service area. Since the results are dependent on these
assumptions, and therefore not applicable in a general sense, it
nonetheless provides a useful indication of the system capacity Fig. 2. Illustration of the Forward Link functionalities in an HTS system
that could become available in the future

II. HTS SYSTEMS

As broadband traffic is by nature bidirectional, HTS system
infrastructures like KA-SAT are bidirectional and imply a star III. THE POWER VS SPECTRUM DEBATE
network topology. Two links can be defined: the Forward Link
and the Return Link. The Forward link delivers data from the The bit rate Rb associated to a communications link user spot
gateway to users and is also referred to as outbound being part of a HTS system can be expressed as a function of
communications. The Return link, also referred to as inbound the bandwidth BW associated to the spot and of the spectrum
communications, communicates from users to the gateway.
Ka-band is ideally suited for the user links mainly because of efficiency η b measured in [bit/s/Hz]:
the enhanced antenna performance of the terminal. The Rb = η b ⋅ BW (1)
propagation impairment at these frequencies are mitigated by
using advanced techniques such as Adaptive Coding and The spectral efficiency ηb depends on the adopted air
Modulation where the coding and modulation are dynamically interface and is a function of signal-to-noise ratio S / N (and
optimised for a given geographical location at the prevailing more generally of signal-to-noise-plus-interference ratio
propagation conditions. S /( N + I ) ) and the available spectrum itself BW .
The most important system parameter is the system capacity
Shannon’s Channel Coding Theorem [5] defines the maximum
which is split accordingly between the Forward and the Return
capacity C (bit/s) for a transmission over a channel with
capacity, where the Forward Capacity has a predominant
importance as it is associated to the download rate provided to bandwidth BW and Gaussian noise at a signal-to-noise ratio
users. Due to the limitation of the available spectrum and in S/N :
order to increase the system capacity, such systems employ a C = BW ⋅ log 2 (1 + S / N ) (3)

2
 By defining a transmission rate Rb less than C it is possible to
express the spectral efficiency as a function of the S/N:
η B ≤ log 2 (1 + S / N ) (4) 5
DVB-S2 Theorical Threasholds

4.5
An illustration is provided in Fig.3
4

Spectrum Efficiency ηb [bit/s/Hz]

Shannon Capacity Limit
18 3.5

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Spectrum Efficiency ηb [bit/s/Hz]

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Fig. 4. DVB-S2 MODCOD Theorical Performance and a Linear Fitting
2
Interpolation
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
S/N [lin] 4 S PEIRP (6)
x 10 = ⋅G / T
Fig. 3. Shannon Capacity Limit. The spectral efficiency can be expressed as N L FS
a function of the S/N for a given AWGN channel with bandwidth Bw
Where PEIRP is the Effective Isotropic Radiated Power,
LFS is the Free Space Loss and,
We now consider the forward link of an HTS system which
G / T represents the figure of merit of the receiver.
is generally the dimensioning link of such systems. The
The expression can be further developed with some
performance of the forward link is normally dimensioned so
simplification as follows:
the performance is mainly dependent on the downlink, i.e. the
S PTWTAGTx GRx (6’)
S/N of the uplink (from the gateway to the satellite) is better =
than the S/N of the downlink (to the terminals from the N § 4πd · 2
¨ ¸ k Tsyst BW
satellite). © λ ¹
We also assumed the modem performance of the DVB-S2 Where PTWTA is the TWTA RF power of the payload on the
Standard [6] which is a widely adopted standard air interface spacecraft,
for such applications. The performance of the range of GTx in the transmit antenna gain of the payload on the
Modulation and Coding (MODCOD) as given in the standard
spacecraft,
is given in Fig. 4 together with a linear fitting interpolation
GRx in the antenna gain of the user terminal,
which can be expressed as:
λ is the wavelength of the communication link signal,
ηb,DVB−S 2 ( x) = a ⋅ x + b
(5) d is the range between the two antennas,
Where a= 0.222 [bit/s/Hz/dB] BW is the bandwidth of the link,
b=0.6589 [bit/s/Hz] and Tsyst is the system noise temperature and
x is the S/N expressed in dB
k is Boltzmann’s constant.
The above consideration shows the relationship between the
Based on the above and presented in [7], several means
spectral efficiency and the S/N.
could be defined for increasing the overall capacity of an HTS
It should also be noted that the use of Adaptive Coding and system:
Modulation (ACM) allows the system to optimize the coding i. using smaller user beams in order to increase capacity
and modulation in static and dynamic conditions. Under static density,
conditions, higher order modulation and/or lower coding rates ii. optimising available spacecraft resources, i.e. of TWTA
are used at the peak performance of the beam than at the edge. (travelling wave tube amplifier) allocation and power,
Under dynamic or rain fade conditions, the modulation and LLL improving system efficiency
coding is adapted to maintain the best link under the prevailing
iv. using larger bandwidth for user spots and exploiting all
propagation conditions.
available spectrum for the gateways.
The signal–to-noise-ratio S / N in clear sky conditions for Thus given the antenna apertures, it can be observed that the
an Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel can be S/N and consequently the η b is a function of the available
expressed in linear units as:
bandwidth, BW and the TWTA RF (radio frequency) power

3
of the payload on the spacecraft, PTWTA . By combining Where N GW is the number of gateways,
equations (5) and (6’), the system capacity sensitivity on
CGW is the capacity handled by each gateway,
spectrum and TWTA RF power can be assessed while
maintaining all other system parameters constant. NUS is the number of user spots and,
It should be noted that we are mainly interested in the
system sensitivity and not in the absolute performance since CUS is the capacity handled by each user spot.
the exercise is to determine which are the best avenues for In the ITU Region 1, currently the Ka-band (27.5 GHz to
increasing the system performance. It should also be noted that 30.0 GHz on the Uplink and 17.7 GHz to 20.2 GHz on the
equations (6) and (6’) are expressed in linear quantities, not for Downlink) is shared between the terminal and feeder
example in dBW. This is because the exercise is mainly related requirements as has been exploited in KA-SAT.
to spacecraft dimensioning and the power of the TWTAs (and, The regulatory status of the Ka-band spectrum in the ITU
of course the number of TWTAs) has a very direct bearing on Region 1 for both the uplink and the downlink is shown in
the spacecraft power system and consequently on the Figure 6.
spacecraft size.




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Fig. 6. Status of Ka-band Frequency Spectrum in ITU Region 1
IV. AVAILABLE SPECTRUM
The use of the bands 29.50 GHz to 30.00 GHz and 19.70
As has been demonstrated in the previous section, the GHz to 20.20 GHz are earmarked for communications to small
optimization of the frequency plan represents one key factor to terminals. The use of the bands 27.5 GHz to 29.50 GHz and
notably increase the broadband capacity in the frame of next 17.70 GHz to 19.70 GHz are on secondary basis and are used
generation HTS systems. These systems typically exploit a for the feeder link, i.e. communications between the gateway
multi-spot approach to allow a significant frequency re-use. and the satellite.
Due to the multi-spot coverage of an HTS system, the In KA-SAT a bandwidth of 250 MHz was typically chosen
overall capacity of such systems is in fact strictly dependent on for each user spot, on both the Forward Link and the Return
the bandwidth which can be associated to each user spot. Link.
Moreover user bandwidth has a direct impact on the number of The spectrum and bands available to the gateways depends
gateways and consequently on the system complexity and cost. on the locations of the gateways with respect to the user
It can be seen that for a homogeneous system, the following coverage, i.e. a gateway spatially separated from the user
capacity equality must be valid. coverage could adopt the same frequency plan as the users. In
N GW CGW = NUS CUS (7) the case when gateways are located within the user coverage,

4
two options can be adopted. become operational.
• either the gateways are operated in Ka-band and
A. Assumptions
thus the available Ka-band spectrum is shared
between the user and gateway frequency plans or As with most system studies the results are a function of the
assumptions and these are listed below:
• the gateways are operated in Q/V-band where a
wider spectrum is available leaving all the Ka-band 1) Service Area
spectrum for the user frequency plan. In order to reduce the variables, the service area was
The latter allows a maximisation of both the terminal assumed to be a constant and similar to that of KA-SAT. This
spectrum (with a consequent increase of the system capacity) is an important assumption since for a given number of spots,
and the gateway spectrum (with a subsequent minimisation of as the service area decreases, the spot and cell dimensions
the number of gateways and the associated cost). shrink and the capacity increases. The number of spots is a
The status of the Q/V-band spectrum for ITU Region 1 on dimensioning parameter since the complexity of the repeater
both the uplink and the downlink is shown in Figure 7. and the feed system of the user antennas are dependent on this
number.
2) Service Quality
It is assumed that the service quality is similar to KA-SAT.
This means that the air interfaces are similar using similar
terminals with antenna apertures of about 70 cm and that the
modem performance is akin to DVB-S2 or Surfbeam 2.
3) Spectrum
As stated earlier, the service area is assumed to be similar to
KA-SAT and therefore within ITU Region 1.
Thus, the available spectrum for the HTS systems
considered use the spectrum as assigned for ITU Region 1. It
is also important to note that since the gateways are assumed
to be embedded within the user service area, frequency re-use
between the terminals and the gateways is not possible. This is
an important consideration for the frequency plan design.
4) Technology Maturity
A minimum Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 7 is
considered as a requirement for embarking the technology on
the spacecraft. This means that the technology is fully
developed and qualified for the intended spacecraft
environment but may not have necessarily flown before. The
equipment using such technology can thus be described a
Prototype Flight Model. The ESA definition of TRL is used
and this is summarised in Table 1
Fig. 7. Status of Q/V-band Frequency Spectrum in ITU Region 1
5) System Schedule
It should be noted that the situation is more complex than A 34-month schedule is assumed for all spacecraft
shown in Figure 6 and 7. For example, within the different configurations considered. This is, of course, a simplification
countries in Europe, the national allocations are different and since the complexity of different spacecraft configurations are
considerable lobbying effort is required to ensure a not identical but is considered adequate for this exercise.
harmonised regulatory and licensing situation over the Various philosophies are possible as to the inception point
countries of interest. of the technologies within the programme. For this exercise, it
is assumed that the enabling technology achieves TRL7 at or
V. CAPACITY FORECAST before the spacecraft Baseline Design Review (BDR) which is
During the summer of 2011, a system study was conducted assumed to be 6 months into the spacecraft contract.
with the view of identifying technologies that would introduce
a step in the total capacity that an HTS system could deliver.
Through discussions with industry, an estimate has been
produced as to when such technology could become available
so as to determine when the specific system capacity could

5
 ESA Technology Readiness Level Summary
1 Basic principles observed and reported Configuration
Enabling Technology
2 Technology concept and/or application formulated
1 5 2 3 4
Narrowband 170 W TWTA x x
3 Analytical & experimental critical function and/or characteristic proof-of-concept
Wideband 300 W TWTA x x
4 Component and/or breadboard validation in laboratory environment
3.5 m reflectors x x x
5 Component and/or breadboard validation in relevant environment 5.0 m reflector x
6 System/subsystem model or prototype demonstration in a relevant environment (ground or space) Q/V Band x x
7 System prototype demonstration in a space environment Multi-feed-per-spot
x
technology
8 Actual system completed and "Flight qualified" through test and demonstration (ground or space)
Spectrum sensing cognitive
9 Actual system "Flight proven" through successful mission operations x x
terminals
Current platform x
Current platform + x
Table 1. Summary of the ESA TRL definition Alphabus x
Alphabus+ x
Table 2. Identification of the chronological order of the enabling technologies
Two months are assumed for the Launch and Early Orbit
and association to the satellite configurations.
Phase (LEOP) and 6 months for the system commissioning
including the spacecraft and the gateway and network Based on the assumptions listed in Section A and the
infrastructure. availability of the enabling technologies listed above, system
It is assumed that the spacecraft technology is on the critical analysis has been performed to deduce the total system
path and that the user ground equipment, the gateways and the capacity that could become available for each configuration.
network infrastructure are not on the critical path. Thus the
spacecraft schedule as depicted in Fig. 8, gives the system ,d^WƌŽũĞĐƚŝŽŶ
schedule.

Configuration 1

Configuration 2

Configuration 3

Configuration 4

Configuration 5
This means that the total system schedule is assumed to be
ϭϬϬϬ
42 months.
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ĂƉĂĐŝƚLJ ^ƚĂƌƚŽĨKƉĞƌĂƚŝŽŶƐ

Fig. 9. Total HTS system capacity forecast

Fig. 8. Assumed HTS system schedule
VI. CONCLUSION
B. Capacity Analysis This paper has addressed three main areas. This first area
The underlying principle for the frequency plan is that the tackles the tradeoffs between power and spectrum in an HTS
terminals always operate in the Ka-Band, while the gateways environment. The second area focuses on the regulatory
operate in Ka-Band when possible but when the spectrum is aspects to assess the spectrum that could be employed for such
systems. Finally, a forecast is produced for HTS systems that
not adequate, the gateways use Q/V-Band to allow the
can provide a significant increase in system capacity based on
terminals to operate in Ka-Band.
the available spectrum, a quality of service similar to that of
Five spacecraft configurations have been identified as
KA-SAT, the enabling technologies and the scheduling.
described in Table 2. Configuration 1 is the benchmark and
uses state-of-the-art technology with no development or A. The Power versus Spectrum Debate
qualification required. The appropriate enabling technology is The overall capacity can be increased by several means,
listed for each configuration. As can be seen from Table 2, including:
configurations 4 and 5 require Q/V-Band. • using smaller user beams in order to increase
The priority of user downlink spectrum usage is the band capacity density,
19.7 GHz to 20.2 GHz, followed by 17.3 GHz to 17.7 GHz • optimising available spacecraft resources, i.e. of
and finally 17.7 GHz to 19.7 GHz. TWTA allocation and power,
As noted is Section IV, the downlink spectrum 17.7 GHz to • improving system efficiency
19.7 GHz, can only be used on a secondary basis where no • using larger bandwidth for user spots and
interference is caused to the primary users. This implies that exploiting all available spectrum for the gateways.
spectrum sensing cognitive terminals will be required. But it is noted that the user bandwidth has a larger impact
Although current terminals do not include such functionality, it than the TWTA power on the increase of system capacity.
is not expected to be a schedule issue if it is planned in.

6
B. Available Spectrum 10.1109/MAP.2011.6138491, Publication Year: 2011 , Page(s): 256 –
266
The overall capacity of such systems is dependent on the [4] Paul Gidney, Daryl Jones, Thomas Paullier and Hector Fenech,
bandwidth that can be associated with each user spot. This user Performance Optimization Of Multibeam Broadband Payloads, 14th Ka
bandwidth has a direct impact on the number of gateways and and Broadband Conference, Matera, Italy, Istituto Internazionale delle
Communicationi, 24-26 September 2008.
subsequently on the system complexity and cost. Current HTS [5] E. Shannon. “A mathematical theory of communication” Bell Syst.
designs share Ka-band spectrum between the user and gateway Tech. J,, vol. 27, pp. 379-423, 623-656, Oct. 1948
spectra, however if the gateways are operated in Q/V-band, a [6] ETSI EN 302 307 V1.2.1, “Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Second
generation framing structure, channel coding and modulation systems
larger bandwidth could be made available. This use of the Q/V for Broadcasting, Interactive Services, News Gathering and other
band would allow maximisation of both the terminal and broadband satellite applications”, Aug. 2009
gateway spectra. [7] H. Fenech, A. Tomatis, E. Lance, M. Kalama, “Next Generation High
Rate Broadband Satellites”, 16th Ka and Broadband Conference,
C. Capacity Forecast Milan, Italy, 20-22 October 2010
[8] H. Fenech, E. Lance “Telecommunications Network”, European Patent
The capacity analysis together with the industrial survey Publications: EP2104243(A1), filed 10 March 2008; French Patent
shows that for a European service area, an HTS system Publications: FR2929059(A1), filed of 21 March 2008; US Patent
capable of delivering a total capacity of about a terabit per Publications: US2009239529(A1) filed on 27 May 2008.
[9] H. Fenech, E. Lance “Telecommunications Network”, European Patent
second should be possible towards the end of this decade. Publications: EP2104242 (A1), filed on 17 March 2008; French Patent
However, it should be noted that such a system is likely to Publications: FR2928794 (A1), filed on 17 March 2008: US Patent
exceed the current platform capabilities in terms of DC power Publications: US2009232046 (A1), filed on 18 April 2008.
[10] H. Fenech, E. Lance “Telecommunications Network”, French Patent
and mass. Launch masses are also challenging. Publications: FR2930694 (A1), filed on 28 April 2008: US Patent
Also providing a ground infrastructure to cater for a terabit Publications: US2009270088 (A1), filed on 28 June 2008.
per second is by no means trivial. The main problem may not [11] H. Fenech, E. Lance, “Payload for Multi-Beam Satellite”, French Patent
be technological but industrial. Although this study Publication: 09/56616, filed on 24 September 2009; PCT Patent
Publication: PCT/EP2010/064184, filed 24 September 2010.
concentrated on the spacecraft issues, the shear number of [12] H. Fenech, E. Lance, “Payload for Multi-Beam Satellite”, France Patent
required gateways and the associated network should not be Publication: 09/56617, filed on 24 September 2009; PCT Patent
underestimated. Of course, this does represent system Publication: PCT/EP2010/064190, filed on 24 September 2010.
delivering capacities of an order on magnitude higher than the
current generation of HTS systems.
This analysis limited itself to gateways operating in Ka-band
and Q/V-Band. Of course, still higher frequencies could be
envisaged perhaps ultimately going up to high availability
optical links with site diversity.

VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thanks the industries that
supported this study, namely:
• EADS Astrium,
• Harris Corporation,
• Northman Grumman Systems Corporation,
• TESAT,
• Thales Alenia Space,
• Thales Electron Devices
(Listed in alphabetical order)

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