High throughput satellite systems: An analytical approach

KA-SAT has represented a new generation of high throughput satellites (HTS) with the largest number of spots delivering a capacity of 90 Gbit/s for a wide variety of services ranging from internet access in homes to satellite news gathering and domestic broadcasting. HTS systems require a critical approach in terms of communication system requirements and payload analysis. This paper presents the typical system architecture of such systems and provides an analytical approach to elements that are required for the estimation of forward and return capacity, the key factor in these systems. These elements include the effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) and the gain over noise temperature (G/T) cumulative densities, the carrier-to-inference (C/I) estimations and the capacity assessment for the forward and return links.