Digital Compression

Answering the question "Is there a better way to

maximize the throughput of my satellite capacity?"
The first use of digital circuits for communications was for telephony applications. One
uncompressed telephone circuit made up a 64 KBps circuit. Soon digital standards were
developed to combine telephony circuits:

• Twenty-four 64 KBps circuits became a 1.544 KBps circuit (or the Unites States
Standard T-1)
• Thirty-two 64 KBps became a 2,048 KBps (or a European E-1), and
• Digital Service Level 3 (DS-3) equals 44.436 MBps,

to name a few standards designations. These circuit standards are still in use today.

As digital compression technology developed, a 64 KBps circuit handled more

telephone quality circuits. With today's advanced compression technology, up to eight-
plus telephone circuits can be placed within a 64 KBps circuit.

The same is true with video carriers. When digital video first arrived on the scene, the
default digital single channel per carrier (SCPC) video carrier was at 8.448 MBps at
QPSK, ¾ FEC (Forward Error Correction) using Reed Solomon (RS) 188/204 coding.
Those carrier parameters conveniently fit into a 9 MHz slot (when transponders were
typically multiples of 36 MHz wide). Up to four 9 MHz SCPC carrier slots could be
created on a 36 MHz transponder. Today, an acceptable standard definition video can be
transmitted using 4 MBps in as little as 4.5 MHz, or even slightly less.

Our broadcast customers also utilize multiple channels per carrier (MCPC), where
multiple distribution channels can fit into one carrier in a 36 MHz slot. The idea of
placing multiple channels in a single carrier is advantageous as it allows for the
maximum amount of throughput (MBps) in the transponder. As an added benefit, all the
power of the transponder is maximized into one carrier. This means the MCPC carrier
can reach smaller antennas than if each channel was individually uplinked on its own
carrier.

The introduction of the Digital Video Broadcast-Satellite (DVB-S) standard made

digital transmission anywhere around the world very easy to do and established the
QPSK, ¾ FEC and 188/204 RS coding as the most efficient digital method. Using this
coding method, a digital video signal can be transmitted to the same legacy 3.8m
receive antennas that received analog video. In fact, the DVB-S standard has been the
dominant digital transmission standard for 15 years—a very long time in technology
terms.

With the introduction of High Definition (HD) television, more MBps are needed for
each channel. The challenge is to fit multiple HD channels into a single transponder.
The more HD channels you can place into a transponder, the more cost-efficient it is for
the broadcaster as the cost of the transponder is spread out over multiple channels—or
'revenue streams' from their perspective. Using DVB-S standard for HD transmission
means fewer channels broadcast per carrier as the HD channels use more MBps per
channel than standard definition channels.

The introduction of DVB-S2 has made great strides again using today's newest
compression technologies. This relatively new standard also allows for more throughput
in the same transponder space than DVB-S. The question comes up, "Is there a better
way to maximize the throughput of my satellite capacity?" The answer is yes, and
maybe no. Using the advanced compression techniques in DVB-S2, a significant
savings in transponder Occupied Bandwidth can be achieved. Or, more MBps can be
squeezed into the same transponder space. However, you must allow for sufficient
transponder power margin, needed to transmit the carrier.

Looking back at the Tech Talk link analysis article, we know that every combination
of modulation scheme, FEC, etc., requires a minimum Eb/No to achieve a threshold of
performance—in this case a Bit Error Rate (BER) of 1 x 106. Using the standard DVB-
S (QPSK, ¾ FEC with 188/204 RS), the Eb/No threshold to achieve a BER of 1 x 106 is
5.9 dB.

When you compare Eb/No thresholds to some of the higher DVB-S2 coding schemes
(Table), you will see that the standard DVB-S schemes still leave a lot of the
transponder power available. This is important to know as the extra power could be
used to receive the carrier into antennas smaller than the 3.8m used in this example.

The DVB-S2 schemes have higher throughput, however, use more power of the
transponder to do so. Using the DVB-S2 higher throughput schemes may prohibit the
use of smaller antennas within a network.

Maximum Eb/No
Extra Transponder
Carrier Parameters Throughput within Threshold
Power Margin (dB)*
36 MHz (1x106)
DVB-S QPSK, ¾ FEC
41.470 MBps 5.9 7.8
with 188/204 RS
DVB-S QPSK, 7/8
48.383 MBps 6.8 6.1
FEC with 188/204 RS
DVB-S2 8PSK,
67.500 MBps 5.6 5.8
¾ FEC
DVB-S2 8PSK,
79.990 MBps 8.3 2
8/9 FEC

(Assumptions: Galaxy C-band, 3.8m downlink CONUS, Circuit Availability=99.96%)

*Extra transponder power is after the 99.96% availability is met.

As you can see, the DVB-S2 can add more than 30 percent more MBps per transponder
than DVB-S. The information is 'packed in' tighter than DVB-S, but the new digital
compression techniques used in DVB-S2 mean the Eb/No threshold are relatively the
same. However, the amount of transponder power needed increases with the use of
higher modulation schemes and data rates. This factor of more MBps per transponder
versus transponder power needed must be balanced to ensure the proper bandwidth use
and power margins for the desired circuit availability on an annual basis.
As Intelsat customers demand more capacity and greater throughput, we will
undoubtedly adopt future compression standards, and we will continue to strive to be at
the forefront of the implementation of those new standards. In the meantime, join me
for the next edition of Tech Talk when I will delve into the inner workings of 'the
transponder.'

One of the many valuable tools on MyIntelsat, the company's customer extranet,
includes an link budget tool. To gain access to MyIntelsat, Intelsat customers should
connect with their Intelsat Sales Director or simply send an email request