Design considerations for compressed digital TV satellite systems

A confluence of technological advances portends exciting new possibilities for video telecommunications services available from geosynchronous satellites. Satellite payload technology is offering high power shaped coverages at Ku-Band. Small earth station technology has reached the point where low system noise temperatures are economically feasible and nearly routine, and perhaps the key ingredient has been the remarkable progress in the area of digital video encoding-wherein both standardized (i.e., open system MPEG) and proprietary implementations are allowing perfectly satisfactory video at data rates that only a few years ago barely yielded acceptable video-conferencing quality. Allied and associated with the progress in video source encoding, practical low-cost approaches to very efficient digital modulation formats, including FEC, have become available. Given the pace of advances in each of these areas, even further progress seems assured