Broadband IP Transmission over SPACEWAY® Satellite with On-Board Processing and Switching

Geo-synchronous SPACEWAY® Ka-band satellite system offers a wide range of user data rates and services on a "bandwidth-on-demand" (BOD) basis. The 30 GHz user uplink (UL) employs narrow-band FDMA/TDMA, whereas 20 GHz user downlink (DL) employs broadband TDMA. Satellite payload consists of a fixed multi-beam receive antenna, a bank of onboard digital de-multiplexing/demodulation/decoding processors, a dynamic packet routing switch, a bank of multiplexing/modulation/encoding processors, a bank of power amplifiers and a hopping-beam transmit array antenna per polarization. This payload architecture enables single-hop, low-latency, full-meshed, user terminal to user terminal connectivity by avoiding double hops to a central hub. Delivery of services to users is provided via low-cost, small-aperture terminals (e.g., 1W HPA and <;0.7m antenna). SPACEWAY® satellite supports a peak capacity of 10 Gbps of raw user data when operating in a point to point (PTP) transmission mode. Dynamic power control is employed to minimize co-channel interference in the user uplinks, and to combat rain fades in both up- and down- links. Payload bandwidth and time slots are assigned based on demand.