Multi-carrier demodulator for the on-board processing T-SAT land mobile payload

Future mobile satellite systems will require the use of multibeam satellites with onboard processing and are likely to use the very efficient SCPC/FDMA-TDM access techniques. A key on-board subsystem for such satellites is the multicarrier demodulator (MCD) for data regeneration. Digital implementations are pursued because of the potentially compact size and low power consumption. An MCD comprises a transmultiplexer (TMUX) for demultiplexing/down sampling, and independent channel demodulators. The authors present the results of a study to optimise the design of the transmultiplexer for mobile systems and use the results to design a complete 4×16 kb/s MCD unit for the T-SAT land mobile payload, employing TMS320C25 signal processor technology