Comparative assessment and performance analysis of interference mitigation techniques for co-existent non-geostationary and geostationary satellites

Abstract

In recent years, technological developments with user demands, reduced production, and launch costs have rapidly increased the number of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites in space. Since LEO satellites use the same frequency band as existing Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites, the interference coordination between the two satellite networks is vital. In order to minimize the co-existent interference between these satellite networks, studies perform on different interference mitigation strategies. In this paper, analysis and comparative assessment of these interference mitigation techniques are presented for the co-existent Non-Geostationary Earth (NGEO) and GEO systems. More specifically, power control (PC) and spatial isolation-based link adaptation (SILA) techniques are studied comparatively for the performance evaluation. It is shown that the communication link bandwidth is more efficiently utilized in the SILA technique when compared with the PC technique. Moreover, the multi-objective optimization problem (MOP) approach in the SILA technique is demonstrated to be more effective when compared with the single-objective optimization problem (SOP) approach used in the PC technique as the simultaneous prioritizing objective functions outperforms single prioritization. Finally, it is shown that when the PC technique is applied together with the SILA technique, the exclusive angle (EA) can be reduced up to 8% for 100 Mbps, and 8.5% for 200 Mbps transmission bit rates in different operational scenarios. The presented performance evaluation in this paper may help the satellite operator or decision-maker gain insights on which mitigation technique can be used in the case of a co-existent interference.