Rain attenuation characteristics due to typhoon passage are discussed using the Ku-band BS satellite signal observations conducted by Osaka Electro-Communication University in Neayagawa from 1988 to 2019. The degree of hourly rain attenuation due to rainfall rate is largely enhanced as typhoon passes the east side of the station, while it becomes smaller in the case of west side passage. Compared to hourly ground wind velocities of nearby AMeDAS, the equivalent path lengths of rain attenuation become larger as the wind directions approach the same angle to the satellite, while they become smaller as the wind directions approach the opposite angle to the satellite. The increase and decrease of the equivalent path lengths are confirmed in other Ku-band and Ka-band satellite paths with different azimuth angles, such as CS, SKP, and SBC. Modified equivalent path lengths calculated by a simple propagation path model including horizontal wind speeds along the same direction to the satellite agree well with the equivalent path lengths observed by each satellite. The equivalent path lengths are, for the first time, proved to be largely affected by the direction of typhoon passage and the horizontal wind velocities.

We have developed a direct spectrum division transmission (DSDT) technique that can divide a single-carrier signal into multiple sub-spectra and assign them to dispersed frequency resources of the satellite transponder to improve the spectrum efficiency of the whole system. This paper summarizes the satellite experiments on DSDT over a single and/or multiple satellite transponders, while changing various parameters such as modulation schemes, roll-off ratios, and symbol rates. In addition, by considering practical use conditions, we present an evaluation of the performance when the spectral density of each sub-spectrum differed across transponders. The satellite experiments demonstrate that applying the proposal does not degrade the bit error rate (BER) performance. Thus, the DSDT technique is a practical approach to use the scattered unused frequency resources over not only a single transponder but also multiple ones.

This paper reports our new communication components and downlink tests for realizing 2.65Gbps by utilizing two circular polarizations. We have developed an on-board X-band transmitter, an on-board dual circularly polarized-wave antenna, and a ground station. In the on-board transmitter, we optimized the bias conditions of GaN High Power Amplifier (HPA) to linearize AM-AM performance. We have also designed and fabricated a dual circularly polarized-wave antenna for low-crosstalk polarization multiplexing. The antenna is composed of a corrugated horn antenna and a septum-type polarizer. The antenna achieves Cross Polarization Discrimination (XPD) of 37-43dB in the target X-band. We also modify an existing 10m ground station antenna by replacing its primary radiator and adding a polarizer. We put the polarizer and Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs) in a cryogenic chamber to reduce thermal noise. Total system noise temperature of the antenna is 58K (maximum) for 18K physical temperature when the angle of elevation is 90° on a fine winter day. The dual circularly polarized-wave ground station antenna has 39.0dB/K of Gain - system-noise Temperature ratio (G/T) and an XPD higher than 37dB. The downlinked signals are stored in a data recorder at the antenna site. Afterwards, we decoded the signals by using our non-real-time software demodulator. Our system has high frequency efficiency with a roll-off factor α=0.05 and polarization multiplexing of 64APSK. The communication bits per hertz corresponds to 8.41bit/Hz (2.65Gbit/315MHz). The system is demonstrated in orbit on board the RAPid Innovative payload demonstration Satellite (RAPIS-1). RAPIS-1 was launched from Uchinoura Space Center on January 19th, 2019. We decoded 1010 bits of downlinked R- and L-channel signals and found that the downlinked binary data was error free. Consequently, we have achieved 2.65Gbps communication speed in the X-band for earth observation satellites at 300 Mega symbols per second (Msps) and polarization multiplexing of 64APSK (coding rate: 4/5) for right- and left-hand circular polarizations.

This paper introduces a new multi-satellite multi-beam system with single frequency reuse; it uses the MIMO (Multi Input Multi Output) technique to improve the frequency efficiency as the satellite communication band is limited. MIMO is the one of the most important approaches to improve the spectral efficiency in support of broadband communications. Since it is difficult to achieve high spectral efficiency by simply combining conventional MIMO satellite techniques, i.e. combining a multi-beam system with single frequency reuse with a multiple satellite system, this paper proposes transmitter pre-coding and receiver equalization techniques to enhance the channel capacity even under time/frequency asynchronous conditions. A channel capacity comparison shows that the proposed system is superior to conventional alternatives.

Satellite communications (SATCOM) systems play important roles in wireless communication systems. In the future, they will be required to accommodate rapidly increasing communication requests from various types of users. Therefore, we propose a framework for efficient resource management in large-scale SATCOM systems that integrate multiple satellites. Such systems contain hundreds of thousands of communication satellites, user terminals, and gateway stations; thus, our proposed framework enables simpler and more reliable communication between users and satellites. To manage and control this system efficiently, we formulate an optimization problem that designs the network structure and allocates communication resources for a large-scale SATCOM system. In this mixed integer programming problem, we allow the cost function to be a combination of various factors so that SATCOM operators can design the network according to their individual management strategies. These factors include the total allocated bandwidth to users, the number of satellites and gateway stations to be used, and the number of total satellite handovers. Our numerical simulations show that the proposed management strategy outperforms a conventional strategy in which a user can connect to only one specific satellite determined in advance. Furthermore, we determine the effect of the number of satellites in the system on overall system performance.

In this paper, we consider a hybrid satellite terrestrial cooperative network with a multi-antenna relay where the satellite links follows the shadowed-Rician fading and the terrestrial link undergoes the correlated Rayleigh fading. Specifically, two different channel state information (CSI) assumptions are considered: 1) full CSI at the relay; 2) full CSI of satellite-relay link and statistical CSI of relay-destination link at the relay. In addition, selection combining (SC) or maximal ratio combining (MRC) are used at the destination to combine the signals from direct link and relay link. By considering the above four cases, we derived the closed-form expressions for the outage probability (OP) respectively. Furthermore, the asymptotic OP expressions at high signal-to-noise (SNR) are developed to reveal the diversity orders and the array gains of the considered network. Finally, numerical results are provided to validate our analytical expressions as well as the system performance for different cases.

Due to the rapid development of small satellite technology and the advantages of LEO satellite with low delay and low propagation loss as compared with the traditional GEO satellite, the broadband LEO constellation satellite communication system has gradually become one of the most important hot spots in the field of satellite communications. Many countries and satellite communication companies in the world are formulating the project of broadband satellite communication system. The broadband satellite communication system is different from the traditional satellite communication system. The former requires a higher transmission rate. In the case of high-speed transmission, if the low elevation constellation is adopted, the satellite beam will be too much, which will increase the complexity of the satellite. It is difficult to realize the low-cost satellite. By comparing the complexity of satellite realization under different elevation angles to meet the requirement of terminal speed through link computation, this paper puts forward the conception of building broadband LEO constellation satellite communication system with high elevation angle. The constraint relation between satellite orbit altitude and user edge communication elevation angle is proposed by theoretical Eq. deduction. And the simulation is carried out for the satellite orbit altitude and edge communication elevation angle.

We have already proposed synchronized spread spectrum code division multiple access (SS-CDMA) for the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) safety confirmation system to be used in times of great disaster. In this system, the satellite reception timings of all uplink signals are synchronized using a transmission timing control method in order to realize high-density user multiple access. An issue that should be addressed in order for this system to be viable is the error that can occur in the satellite reception timing. This error occurs due to the terminal time deviation and the error in calculating the propagation delay to the satellite. In this paper, we measure the terminal time deviation and the propagation delay calculation error at the same time by using the same receivers and evaluate the satellite reception timing error of the uplink signal. By this measurement, it is shown that satellite reception timing error within 50ns can be realized in 99.98% of mobile terminals. This shows that the synchronized SS-CDMA with the transmission timing control method has a potential to realize the QZSS short message system with high-density user multiple access.

A high-rate coding scheme that polar codes are concatenated with low density generator matrix (LDGM) codes is proposed in this paper. The scheme, referred to as polar-LDGM (PLG) codes, can boost the convergence speed of polar codes and eliminate the error floor behavior of LDGM codes significantly, while retaining the low encoding and decoding complexity. With a sensibly designed Gaussian approximation (GA), we can accurately predict the theoretical performance of PLG codes. The numerical results show that PLG codes have the potential to approach the capacity limit and avoid error floors effectively. Moreover, the encoding complexity is lower than the existing LDPC coded system. This motives the application of powerful PLG codes to satellite communications in which message transmission must be extremely reliable. Therefore, an adaptive relaying protocol (ARP) based on PLG codes for the relay satellite system is proposed. In ARP, the relay transmission is selectively switched to match the channel conditions, which are determined by an error detector. If no errors are detected, the relay satellite in cooperation with the source satellite only needs to forward a portion of the decoded message to the destination satellite. It is proved that the proposed scheme can remarkably improve the error probability performance. Simulation results illustrate the advantages of the proposed scheme

We propose an approach to allocate bandwidth for a satellite communications (SATCOM) system that includes the recent high-throughput satellite (HTS) with frequency flexibility. To efficiently operate the system, we manage the limited bandwidth resources available for SATCOM by employing a control method that allows the allocated bandwidths to exceed the communication demand of user terminals per HTS beam. To this end, we consider bandwidth allocation for SATCOM as an optimal control problem. Then, assuming that the model of communication requests is available, we propose an optimal control method by combining model predictive control and sparse optimization. The resulting control method enables the efficient use of the limited bandwidth and reduces the bandwidth loss and number of control actions for the HTS compared to a setup with conventional frequency allocation and no frequency flexibility. Furthermore, the proposed method allows to allocate bandwidth depending on various control objectives and beam priorities by tuning the corresponding weighting matrices. These findings were verified through numerical simulations by using a simple time variation model of the communication requests and predicted aircraft communication demand obtained from the analysis of actual flight tracking data.

This paper introduces distributed array antenna (DAA) systems that offer high antenna gain. A DAA consists of several small antennas with improved antenna gain. This paper proposes a technique that suppresses the off-axis undesired radiation and compensates the time delay by combining signal processing with optimization of array element positioning. It suppresses the undesired radiation by compensating the delay timing with high accuracy and deliberately generating the inter-symbol interference (ISI) in side-lobe directions. Computer simulations show its effective suppression of the equivalent isotropic radiated power (EIRP) pattern and its excellent BER performance.

Communications satellites have been the primary mission from the early period of Japanese space development and their on-board communication equipment are the core devices to realize satellite communications systems. The technologies for this equipment have been developed to meet the requirements of high capacity and high functionality under the severe satellite-imposed constraints. This paper summarizes progress in on-board communication equipment technologies developed and verified by using Engineering Test Satellites and commercial satellites in Japan and describes their prospects.

This paper proposes a dynamic spectrum controlled (DSTC) channel allocation algorithm to increase the total throughput of satellite communication (SATCOM) systems. To effectively use satellite resources such as the satellite's maximum transponder bandwidth and maximum transmission power and to handle the propagation gain variation at all earth stations, the DSTC algorithm uses two new transmission techniques: spectrum compression and spectrum division. The algorithm controls various transmission parameters, such as the spectrum compression ratio, number of spectrum divisions, combination of modulation method and FEC coding rate (MODCOD), transmission power, and spectrum bandwidth to ensure a constant transmission bit rate under variable propagation conditions. Simulation results show that the DSTC algorithm achieves up to 1.6 times higher throughput than a simple MODCOD-based algorithm.

To provide a satellite communication system with high reliability for social infrastructure, building flexible beam adapting to change of communication traffic is necessary. Optical Beam Forming Network has the capability of broadband transmission and small light construction. However, in space environment, there are concerns that the reception efficiency is reduced by the relative phase error of receiving signal among antenna elements with temperature fluctuation. To prevent this, we control relative phase among received signals with optical phase locked loop. In this paper, we propose the active optical phased array system using multi dither heterodyning technique for receiving OBF, and present experimental results under temperature fluctuation. We evaluated the stability of relative phase among 3 elements for temperature fluctuation at multiplexer from -15 to 45, and checked the stability of PLL among 3 elements.

RF under sampling is more suitable for Satellite receiver systems in comparison to terrestrial systems. In conventional RF under sampling the minimum sampling frequency (fs) should be atleast twice the system bandwidth; therefore for a system with a wide bandwidth, a relatively high fs is necessary. In this paper we propose a direct RF under sampling reception method that halves fs. The proposed f's is achieved by folding in band noise in half. A method of adapting f's for the reception of signals in different channels is also proposed; this ensures that the SNR is not degraded for any channel. To evaluate the proposed technique's performance and compare it to the conventional case a 3 channel, 1 GHz band test receiver and it's key device (i.e. S/H circuit) are developed. Using SNR and EVM as performance indexes, the performance of the proposed technique has been evaluated and compared to that of the conventional technique. The evaluation results show that the proposed technique can achieve the same performance as conventional RF under sampling for all 3 channels, using only half of the sampling frequency of the conventional technique.

This paper presents wireless systems for use in disaster recovery operations. The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011 reinforced the importance of communications in, to, and between disaster areas as lifelines. It also revealed that conventional wireless systems used for disaster recovery need to be renovated to cope with technological changes and to provide their services with easier operations. To address this need we have developed new systems, which include a relay wireless system, subscriber wireless systems, business radio systems, and satellite communication systems. They will be chosen and used depending on the situations in disaster areas as well as on the required services.

For effective use of the frequency band, carrier superposing (common band) technique has been introduced to satellite communication systems. On the other hand, satellite's TWTA (Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier) should be operated near its saturation level for power efficiency. However, the TWTA nonlinearity characteristics around that level causes interference in carrier superposing systems. Therefore in this paper, a post-compensation technique for TWTA nonlinear distortion is introduced and verified for practical use in a carrier superposed Point to Point satellite communication system which adopts interference canceller. Simulation results show that it is possible to reduce the bit error rate degradation over the entire range, especially at nonlinear operating point.

This paper proposes a new channel allocation algorithm for satellite communication systems. The algorithm is based on a spectrum division transmission technique as well as a spectrum compression transmission technique that we have developed in separate pieces of work. Using these techniques, the algorithm optimizes the spectrum bandwidth and a MODCOD (modulation and FEC error coding rate) scheme to balance the usable amount of satellite transponder bandwidth and satellite transmission power. Moreover, it determines the center frequency and bandwidth of each divided subspectra depending on the unused bandwidth of the satellite transponder bandwidth. As a result, the proposed algorithm enables flexible and effective usage of satellite resources (bandwidth and power) in channel allocations and thus enhances satellite communication (SATCOM) system capacity.

It is well known that satellite communications systems are effective and essential communication infrastructure for disaster relief. NICT sent researchers to Tsunami stricken area in March right after the Great East Japan Earthquake and provided broadband satellite communications link to support rescue activities. Through this experience, we learned many kinds of requirements of communications for such purposes. In this paper, we list up the requirements and report what kind of satellite communications technologies are needed, and research and development issues.

This paper proposes a novel satellite channel allocation algorithm for a demand assigned multiple access (DAMA) controller. In satellite communication systems, the channels' total bandwidth and total power are limited by the satellite's transponder bandwidth and transmission power (satellite resources). Our algorithm is based on multi-carrier transmission and adaptive modulation methods. It optimizes channel elements such as the number of sub-carriers, modulation level, and forward error correction (FEC) coding rate. As a result, the satellite's transponder bandwidth and transmission power can be simultaneously used to the maximum and the overall system capacity, i.e., total transmission bit rate, will increase. Simulation results show that our algorithm increases the overall system capacity by 1.3 times compared with the conventional fixed modulation algorithm.