CCSDS 131.2-B-1 Transmitter Design on FPGA with Adaptive Coding and Modulation Schemes for Satellite Communications

Satellite communications are a well-established research area in which the main innovation of last decade has been the use of multi-carrier modulations and more robust channel coding techniques. However, in recent years, novel advanced signal processing has started being developed for these communications due to the increase in the signal processing capacity of transmitters and receivers. Although signal processing capabilities are increasing, they are still constrained by large limitations because these techniques need to be implemented in real hardware, thus making complexity a matter of critical importance. Therefore, this paper presents the design and implementation of a transmitter with adaptable coding and modulation on a field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA). The main motivation came from the standard CCSDS 131.2-B-1 which recommends that such a novel transmitter which has to date not been implemented in a real system The system was modeled by MATLAB with the purpose of being programmed in VHDL following the AXI-stream protocol between components. Behavioral simulation results were obtained in VIVADO and compared with MATLAB for verification purposes. The transmitter logical circuit was synthesized in a FPGA Zynq Ultrascale RFSoC ZU28DR, showing low resource consumption and correct functioning, leading us to conclude that the deployment of new communication systems in state-of-the-art hardware in satellite communications is justified.

The Analysis of Experimental Deployment of IGLUNA 2019 Trans-Ice Longwave System

An experimental longwave system operating in the broadcasting spectrum with horizontal magnetic loop transmitting antennas is presented as an element of simulated lunar astronaut mission of the IGLUNA program of Swiss Space Center (ESA_Lab demonstrator) in June 2019 on the Klein Matterhorn glacier in Switzerland. The parameters of the antennas, the environment, the transmitter design, and propagation tests are presented. The best-suited propagation model is developed. As the system, using low powers, provided coverage of maximal distance of 2077.06 km, a single radio station of this type would cover about 36% of the Moon’s surface and allow in situ ground-penetrating research.

Low-power integrated transmitter design using frequency multiplication techniques

This paper proposes an approach to employ frequency multiplication techniques like edge-combining and third harmonic extraction in ultra-low-power integrated transmitter design. The overall power demand of the transmitter is reduced by keeping operating frequency of its components low. For that reason, edge-combining and third harmonic extraction are integrated directly into a switched mode power amplifier. Hence, the radio frequency signal is generated just before it is fed to the antenna. This leads to a reduced power demand of the overall transmitter in comparison to conventional designs where the oscillator and other components are operated directly at the radio frequency. Within this paper we propose an amplifier that generates a 2.4 GHz carrier frequency from a ring oscillator running at a low 200 MHz resulting in a frequency multiplication factor of twelve. The exemplary design is targeted to be used in ultra-low-power short range applications. Hence, our simulations using extracted layout models show that the amplifier provides an output power of approximately -12 dBm at a supply voltage of 0.6 V while consuming 2.4 mW of power fully integrated in a 180 nm 1P6M CMOS process. This demonstrates that the proposed techniques are especially suitable for ultra-low-power transmitter in short range applications. That includes medical and body area network applications.