Analysis of satellite Q/V band channel errors based on Italian experimental campaign

High Throughput Satellite (HTS) systems still offer much less bandwidth per user with respect terrestrial broadband networks. In order to reach a very high throughput towards “Tbit/s connectivity†, an important breakthrough is needed in terms of bandwidth availability which can be offered by the use of Extremely High Frequency (EHF) bands (30-300 GHz). In particular, Q-V band (30-50 GHz) and W-band (70-110 GHz) offer very promising perspectives, being not used for commercial systems and offering a large part of the spectrum allocated for satellite services. However, it is well known that EHF band transmission through the atmosphere is subject to absorption and dispersive effects in amplitude and phase that have to be carefully characterized. In this framework, some mitigation techniques have to be analyzed and properly tuned in order to realize an efficient transmission. In this paper, the current experimental activities to support future EHF satellite communication systems are reported, with reference to the Italian Space Agency Q/V-band satellite communication experimental campaign. In particular, a new error model for QPSK modulation scheme has been developed from the experimental data. This error model can be used for the design of optimized channel coding and adaptive transmission schemes for Q/V band satellite channels.