Telekommunikationssystem und -management

A Static Beam Placement and Beam Shaping Algorithm for Multibeam High Throughput Satellite Systems

Abstract

Rubén Alinque,

TThe satellite communications market is growing and new generation of satellites will have unprecedented levels of flexibility and scalability: future multibeam High Throughput Satellites (HTS) are expected to be able to operate thousands of beams simultaneously. This poses new challenges when it comes to efficiently managing the increasing amount of resources. Two of these challenges are linked to the beam placement (i.e., defining the pointing direction for each beam) and beam shape (i.e., optimizing the gain distribution among covered users) problems. Optimizing these processes could reduce required RF power and enable the accommodation of new users into the system. In this paper, we present an algorithm to address the joint beam placement and beam shape optimization. It consists of an iterative approach combining a placement heuristic and a gradient descent-based method. The algorithm decides the total number of beams needed and provides their pointing directions and shapes. We analyze the performance of this algorithm in a high-dimensional scenario based on realistic operational data, considering elliptical shapes with variable semi axes and relative rotation. We show this method provides higher gain to users and reduces satellite power consumption in comparison to other approaches from literature.