Adaptive Transmission Techniques for Mobile Satellite Links

TL;DR

This paper introduces adaptive transmission strategies for mobile satellite links, utilizing multi-layer coding and open-loop adaptation to enhance spectral efficiency while maintaining outage constraints.

Contribution

It proposes novel adaptive techniques for satellite communication links that address fast channel variations and long delays, using physical-layer abstraction tools.

Findings

Increased average spectral efficiency achieved.

Maintained outage probability below threshold.

Effective adaptation strategies for both forward and return links.

Abstract

Adapting the transmission rate in an LMS channel is a challenging task because of the relatively fast time variations, of the long delays involved, and of the difficulty in mapping the parameters of a time-varying channel into communication performance. In this paper, we propose two strategies for dealing with these impairments, namely, multi-layer coding (MLC) in the forward link, and open-loop adaptation in the return link. Both strategies rely on physical-layer abstraction tools for predicting the link performance. We will show that, in both cases, it is possible to increase the average spectral efficiency while at the same time keeping the outage probability under a given threshold. To do so, the forward link strategy will rely on introducing some latency in the data stream by using retransmissions. The return link, on the other hand, will rely on a statistical characterization of a physical-layer abstraction measure.