Description
Objective:
To study and derive a technical and economically feasible system concept for mobile multimedia reception to cars in Ka-band. The technical feasibility will be proven by means of computer simulations using real video streams and an appropriate channel model.
Targeted Improvements:
Increase the system spectral efficiency by 20% or correspondingly reduce the terminal antenna size requirement.
Description:
DBS Ku-band TV receivers for vehicles represent an established market. Solutions exist for both on-the-move and on-the-pause type user terminals and from a variety of manufacturers. While this is a profitable business, it is not regarded as high volume in comparison to the general satellite TV-receive market.
This is partly due to the size of the antenna and the overall cost of the user equipment. In recent years, several attempts have been made to propose new, novel systems to improve on these shortcomings. In Europe, a mobile multimedia broadcasting systems in Ku-band using standard inclined orbit TV satellites was demonstrated in an ESA-led project. In the US, AT&T launched a commercial Ku-band service branded Cruise-cast (with the help of Raysat) also exploring smaller, lower cost user antennas.
In comparison, L- and S-band solutions offer very cost-effective and discrete antennas, but here the bandwidth is limited and also costly.
With the advent of multi-spot beam Ka-band capacity offering reduced terminal G/T requirement thanks to the higher satellite EIRP, both the problem of costly and large antennas as well as expensive bandwidth may be tackled. The TM-S2 group is currently defining a very efficient air interface for mobile applications which, integrated with state-of-the-art non-line-of-sight digital signal processing techniques could significantly increase the spectral efficiency of the system and ultimately make the overall service more attractive.
This study activity will start with the analysis of past and currently deployed systems and derive the lesson learned on where the mobile Ka-band systems should improve to make the business case more competitive. Along these directions, Ka-band multi-spot beam capacity as well as a properly adapted DVB-Sx air interface shall be considered as possible improvement axis. The so derived new system will then be simulated within a realistic channel model and the performance demonstrated by testing the delivered QoS of real video streams. The overall business case of the new system shall then be drawn.
Procurement Policy: C(1) = Activity restricted to non-prime contractors (incl. SMEs). For additional information please go to EMITS news "Industrial Policy measures for non-primes, SMEs and R&D entities in ESA programmes".