Time switching based VHTS System for Reduced Satellite Resources

This paper presents system concept and payload design of very high throughput satellite system based on beam hopping that is time domain switching in multicolour reuse concept. High throughput satellites (HTS), with large aggregate bandwidth, act as a backbone to support terrestrial communication in remote and unconnected areas. The Very high throughput satellites (VHTS), aiming at several hundred Gbps of capacity, employing hundreds of spot beams over coverage area, reduces the cost per bit of space infrastructure. The use of time switched beams (beam hopping, BH) in a VHTS system offers significant advantage by providing system flexibility with reduced space resources. This paper presents the system concept and payload design of a time switched VHTS system for Indian region; its comparison with the conventional frequency re-use (FDMA) system; and associated technological challenges. The time switched VHTS system shows reduction in payload mass and power requirements, with same spectrum and aggregate system throughput.