ESA Open Invitation to Tender: 1-10706
Open Date: 22/04/2022 11:05 CEST
Closing Date: 08/07/2022 13:00 CEST

The objective of this activity is to design, implement and carry out a number of communication experiments in Q/V band using Alphasat’s Aldo Paraboni (TDP5) infrastructure. The experiments will cover mobile and non-GEO use cases. Targeted Improvements: Enabling the practical use of Q/V-band for satcom systems for new operational scenarios including land mobile systems, railway, maritime and non-GEO mission profiles.Description: Alphasat’s Aldo Paraboni (TDP5) experiment has demonstrated Q/V band radio-communication linksbetween fixed ground stations with antennas larger than 1m. Mobile and non-GEO use cases still remain to be tested and demonstrated. Taking advantage of the recent upgrade of the ground segment and the guaranteed operation of TDP5’s until the end of 2022 (and possibly even up to the end of 2025) this activity will design, implement and carry out a number of experiments covering mobile and non-GEO use cases:1) a maritime experiment to provide high speed broadband capacity to large cruise ships,2) communication experiments with land mobile terminals,3) communication experiments with aeronautical terminals,4) a railway communication test bed in Q/V band to assess the potential effectiveness of large planar antennas to partially compensate for fading, and to assess the diversity across coaches to counteract the effect of the power poles, and5) the simultaneous acquisition of atmospheric channel measurements at Ka and Q/V Band on GEO and non-GEO orbits. This will allow to determine how the GEO radio link parameters can be scaled to non-GEO configurations.The activity will develop the experimental setups, the propagation terminals, data acquisition systems and data processing algorithms. Experimental propagation data for these use cases will be collected to enable channel modelling of mobile and non-GEO use cases.Procurement Policy: C2: Activities are in open competition, where a significant participation of non-LSIs is requested. For additional information please go to EMITS news “Industrial Policy measures for non-primes, SMEs and RD entities in ESA programmes”.

Directorate: Directorate Telecom Integrated Applica
Estabilishment: ESTEC
ECOS Required: No
Classified: No
Price Range: > 500 KEURO
Authorised Contact Person: Florence Odette Jeanne Glandieres
Initiating Service: TIA-TT
IP Measure: C2
Prog. Reference: E/0534-01G – CC-AT 4.0.1
Tender Type: Open Competition
Open To Tenderers From: AT+BE+CA+CH+CZ+DE+DK+GR+ES+FI+FR+GB+HU+IE+IT+LU+NL+NO+PL+PT+RO+SE
Technology Keywords: 7-B-II-Wave Propagation
Products Keywords: 2-L-3-a-X-band, S-Band, Ka band,… / Near Earth application, Deep space application, … / Platform vs Payload