Multi-link reception multibeam satellite system model

In this paper a novel approach is presented for the design of a multibeam satellite system. It is based on the assumption that terminals have the capability to decode the links from the orthogonal transmissions that are present at any location of a conventional coloured multi-beam satellite system. Terminals would not only decode the transmission intended to the beam where it is located but also the transmissions intended to its adjacent beams. The key observation is that orthogonal frequencies and/or polarizations used for such transmissions can actually be considered as available offered throughput instead of being just wasted. This is of particular interest for multicast scenarios. This paper investigates this approach and an analytical model of a multilink reception is derived. Specifically, we obtain analytical expressions for the per user terminal (UT), per beam and system aggregated throughput. We apply the analysis assuming the adaptive physical layer reception of the Digital Video Broadcasting over Satellite 2nd generation (DVB-S2). We show that for a realistic antenna and a four colour system, transmissions intended to the adjacent orthogonal beams can be decoded as spectral efficiencies spread over a wide range up to 16APSK. In particular, we show that assuming reception of both the intended and the strongest orthogonal signal and a uniform distribution of users a spectral efficiency reduction in 25% for the intended beam results in a spectral efficiency increase of 150% due to multi-link reception and so a net gain of 125% can be achieved. Furthermore, the service would target a larger number of users that a state-of-the-art design would do with the consequent revenue benefit.