Multicast multigroup precoding for frame-based multi-gateway satellite communications

The present work focuses on the forward link of fixed multibeam broadband satellite systems which employ aggressive frequency reuse patterns in the user-link. For such scenarios, the state-of-the art frame based precoding methods can improve the system performance, exploiting the super framing structure of the latest physical layer evolutions in satellite communications. Nevertheless, the limitations of feeder link need to be considered. Since the increase of the user link capacity leads to a proportional increase in the capacity requirements of the point-to-point feeder link, the deployment of multiple gateways to feed the satellite is examined. The main concept lies in each earth station being dedicated to serve a cluster of beams. In this context, the performance degradation due to inter-cluster interference is quantified. Since inter-cluster interference is expected to primarily affect cluster-edge users, the chosen performance metric is system fairness. Next, coordination between the multiple gateways is proposed as a means to mitigate interference between the different clusters and thus increase the minimum SINR over the coverage. Consequently, the gains in terms of system availability, a crucial metric in satellite communications, are exhibited via numerical system level simulations. The energy efficiency of the proposed system is also presented.