Proof of concept effort for demonstrating an all-digital satellite communications earth terminal

The Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate of the U.S. Army´s Communications- Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center is executing a proof of concept program to develop and demonstrate an All-Digital Satellite Communications Earth Terminal. The Future Advanced Satellite Terminal (FAST) program initially focuses on the satellite terminal´s receive component of the satellite link. The two main efforts under FAST are a multi-carrier wideband digital downconverter and a wideband multi-carrier advanced signal processor. The downconverter is designed to simultaneously capture at L-band Intermediate Frequency (IF) all of the signals in a selectable 125 MHz-wide transponder bandwidth of the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite and convert them into a digital in-phase and quadrature signal. This digitized signal is then passed over an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) VMEBUS International Trade Association (VITA) 49 interface to the wideband multi-carrier advanced signal processor, which will simultaneously process at least eight communications signals. Future plans for a complete transmit and receive terminal capability and a potential migration path from fixed frequency division multiple access (FDMA) carriers to a more dynamic process for allocating bandwidth, decentralized power monitoring and control, and remote terminal control are also discussed.