# Carrier Aggregation in Multi-Beam High Throughput Satellite Systems

## TL;DR

This paper explores the application of carrier aggregation in multibeam high throughput satellite systems, analyzing its potential to improve spectrum utilization and user demand satisfaction through flexible carrier allocation strategies.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel approach for carrier-user assignment and evaluates the feasibility of carrier aggregation in satellite systems through simulations.

## Key findings

- Carrier aggregation is feasible in satellite systems.
- Flexible carrier allocation improves user demand satisfaction.
- Simulation results support the potential benefits of CA in satellite communications.

## Abstract

Carrier Aggregation (CA) is an integral part of current terrestrial networks. Its ability to enhance the peak data rate, to efficiently utilize the limited available spectrum resources and to satisfy the demand for data-hungry applications has drawn large attention from different wireless network communities. Given the benefits of CA in the terrestrial wireless environment, it is of great interest to analyze and evaluate the potential impact of CA in the satellite domain. In this paper, we study CA in multibeam high throughput satellite systems. We consider both inter-transponder and intra-transponder CA at the satellite payload level of the communication stack, and we address the problem of carrier-user assignment assuming that multiple users can be multiplexed in each carrier. The transmission parameters of different carriers are generated considering the transmission characteristics of carriers in different transponders. In particular, we propose a flexible carrier allocation approach for a CA-enabled multibeam satellite system targeting a proportionally fair user demand satisfaction. Simulation results and analysis shed some light on this rather unexplored scenario and demonstrate the feasibility of the CA in satellite communication systems.