Satellite communication system performance in the presence of scintillation

The authors demonstrate an approach to evaluating the bit-error probability performance of a satellite communication system operating in the presence of scintillation and thermal noise. The probability distribution function of the decision variable is used in an analytical simulation to predict bit-error probabilities for various channel conditions. With regard to treating the problems due to channel memory, a software simulator of the system has been developed; this simulator accounts for the coding, modulation, channel memory, noise, scintillation statistics, and the interleaver-deinterleaver system design. A tradeoff analysis is made with regard to different approaches concerning signal processing in the satellite and ground station. Soft- vs. hard-decision Viterbi decoding in a ground receiver is evaluated. Results on signal processing in the satellite as compared to that in the ground station are provided.<>