Optimizing the warfighter's non-processing satellite transponder utilization

Abstract

The Objective Force Warrior will benefit from combined video, data and voice applications. These applications demand greater communication capacity generally accompanied by an associated increase in required spectrum. Mobile tactical satellite terminals support the warfighter and typically use smaller aperture antennas, often referred to as "disadvantaged". Non-processing ("bent pipe") satellite transponders operate with limits on bandwidth and power. Typical usage drives the operator to trade-off between power and bandwidth to maximize transponder efficiency. The cases for power-limited and bandwidth-limited transponder use lead to some interesting observations, and hence, directions for optimizing satellite utilization. While higher order modulation waveforms can better serve the larger terminals by increasing their bandwidth utilization, smaller tactical terminals suffer from limited satellite transponder power. This paper details several examples for bandwidth and power limited cases with particular attention given to optimizing the warfighter's satellite usage. A recently developed and proven waveform known as the advanced waveform provides the warrior the capability to double the effective data rate, or double the number of terminals under the satellite or halve the antenna aperture size.