Solving Port Selection Problem in Multiple Beam Antenna Satellite Communication System by Using Differential Evolution Algorithm

Hybrid matrix power amplifier (HMPA) has important applications in the multi-beam antenna satellite communication systems. The fabrication and port selection complexity of the HMPA increases with the number of feed ports, thus the relatively large HMPA is always substituted by several small HMPAs in engineering applications. In spite of this, determining the port connection sequence between the HMPA and the beam forming network (BFN) becomes a difficult problem. When the number of feed element is large, improper port selection could cause the uneven power load among small HMPAs, which deteriorates the performance of the satellite system. An interesting method for deriving the port connection sequence via the differential evolution algorithm is proposed in this communication. The approach reorganizes the port selection problem as a combinatorial optimization problem. The differential evolution algorithm is used to determine the optimal sequence applied in the multi-beam antenna system for yielding the near uniform power load among the individual power amplifiers. Simulated results on instances of the 12 and 64 feed elements are presented to illustrate the capabilities and effectiveness of the proposed method for the port selection problem.