Symbol-Level Precoding with Per-antenna Power Constraints for the Multi-beam Satellite Downlink

This paper tackles the problem of multi-user interference in the forward downlink channel of a multi-beam satellite system. A symbol-level precoding scheme is considered, where the data information is used, along with the channel state information, in order to exploit the multi-user interference and transform it into useful power at the receiver side. In this framework, the max-min fair problem for constructive interference is formulated and solved, under per-antenna power constraints. The consideration of the power limitations individually for each transmitting RF chain is the novel aspect, and it is relevant in particular for systems suffering non-linear effects of the channel. This is the case of satellite systems, where the non-linear amplifiers should be properly driven in order to reduce the detrimental saturation effect. The proposed precoding design optimizes the system performance at the receiver side in terms of signal-to-noise ratio, whilst guaranteeing the system fairness and allowing a control over the power transmitted by each antenna, in particular reducing the power peaks. Numerical results are presented to validate the proposed scheme, and to show its effectiveness in terms of distribution of the transmitted power and peak-to-average power ratio.