European Space Agency
European Space Agency
From the channel capacity point of view MIMO technologies have been evaluated to be the key to open the gate to go beyond the Shannon bordered land. Until now these techniques have been tested and verified in the terrestrial world and so far have found entry into transmission systems like IEEE-802.11n (WLAN), IEEE-802.16 (Wimax) and LTE. But this technology has not yet found its way into the satellite sector.
Therefore the objectives of the project are to study the characteristics of fading from satellite systems taking into account MIMO technology with the goal to design and implement a software model of the satellite MIMO channel.
This software model has the following characteristics:
Provide a validated software simulation channel model with:
For validation of the model a database is generated by multiple field experiments.
The main benefit of the project is to close the gap in the modelling chain. By making a model available the attractiveness of using MIMO technology in satellite based transmission system may be evaluated by satellite operators and system designers. Ultimately this can lead to the design of a new type of satellite broadcasting systems.
The simulation model is be based on the general approach of separating the large scale fading (LSF) and small scale fading (SSF) effects
By that it is possible for the user to introduce his own SSF or LSF model as long as the LSP time-series (LSP-TS) interface is honoured.
Two model approaches have already been developed within the project:
The validated features supported by the models are:
The study’s entry point was the evaluation of systems for mobile reception that may benefit from satellite based MIMO transmission and the subsequent definition of the necessary requirements of a simulator model which are needed for supporting these systems. Based on the requirements a suitable model is selected and the additional features for MIMO compatibility are defined. The additional features are then incorporated into the model to create a first prototype.
The output of the prototype has been tested and validated against data that is gathered in the field during satellite and terrestrial based measurement campaigns. From this the validated model is generated.
Project Plan:
The activity has been completed including the following tasks:
Further detailed information about the measurement campaigns and the analysis results and the modelling can be found in several publications about the MIMOSA project:
