Link Analysis of Commercial and Wideband Gapfiller Satellite (WGS) Satellites Using DVB-S2 with Variable Coding and Modulation (VCM)

A link analysis was performed of the digital video broadcast-satellite (DVB-S) second generation waveform (DVB-S2) using a commercial (Ku band) and the wideband gapfiller satellite (WGS) satellite at X-band and Ka-band. The analysis is for the CENTCOM VSAT network (also known as the global war on terrorism [GWOT] network) that uses the EUTELSAT W6 satellite (21.5deg east) and supports both forward (DVB-S) and return traffic [DVB-return channel by satellite (RCS)] traffic in the same 72 MHz transponder. The forward traffic consists of nominal DVB-S broadcasts to receive-only terminals (1 m) as well as duplex 1.8 m and 2.4 m terminals. The return traffic consists of constant-rate, tactical, video feeds (from the 2.4m terminals) along with SIPRNET Internet protocol (IP) interactive traffic (from the 1.8 m terminals). The hub is located at Landstuhl, Germany. The paper considers 3 cases. First, the capacity of the Eutelsat W6 transponder is computed for the forward and return traffic sharing the same transponder. Next, the capacity is computed for DVB-S2 using constant coding and modulation (CCM) and variable coding and modulation (VCM) over the baseline GWOT network. Finally, the system capacity is computed using WGS (at 60deg east) again using DVB-S2 with CCM and VCM and DVB-RCS