ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO10195
Open Date: 17/12/2020
Closing Date: 10/03/2021 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 20.1TT.15
Prog. Ref.: CC-AT 4.0.1
Budget Ref.: E/0534-01G – CC-AT 4.0.1
Special Prov.: BE+DK+FR+DE+IT+NL+ES+SE+CH+GB+IE+AT+NO+FI+PT+GR+LU+CZ+RO+CA+HU+PL
Tender Type: C
Price Range: > 500 KEURO
Products: Ground Segment / Ground Station / RF equipment / Transmitter and Receiver assemblies, Frequency converters, …
Technology Domains: Ground Station Systems and Networks / Ground Station System / Ground TT&C and Payload Data Reception Antenna Systems
Establishment: ECSAT
Directorate: Directorate Telecom & Integrated Applica
Department: Telecom Technologies,Product&Systems Dep
Division: Technologies and Products Division
Contract Officer: Rinaudo, Nicole
Industrial Policy Measure: C1 – Activities in open competition limited to the non-Larg…
Last Update Date: 17/12/2020
Update Reason: Tender issue

Objective: The objective of this activity is to develop and test in a representative environment a ground transceiver that combinesthe RF signals from two or more medium-orbit or low-orbit satellites operating in Ka-Band. In order to demonstrate the concept, twobreadboard receivers shall be developed, one assumed to be located at the user terminal, fed through a wide-beam and low-gain Ka-Bandantenna, and one at the gateway considering a hub-spoke network typical of broadband applications. Targeted Improvements: Up to a factor of 2 improvement of data throughput from near 3dB gain in link performance by dual signal combination. Description: To enable new applications that are not viable economically today, there is a commercial interest in small and low-cost terminals for mediumandlow-orbit satellite systems, based on a wide-beam and low-gain antenna with a half-power beamwidth of 10 degrees or wider. Since such an antenna will see multiple, at least two, satellites at the same time, there is an opportunity to combine the signals from multiple satellites for improving the aggregated data rate, for beam load balancing or for improving the robustness of the satellitelinkthrough path diversity. In order to better understand the potential of path diversity and signal combination, it is proposed to perform a measurement campaign to quantify the potential gains and benefits. The measurements could be performed by using the beacon signals transmitted by medium orbit satellites. The hereto-proposed activity would quantify the impact of signal fading due tomultipath effects near the terminal and by quantifying the potential link improvements through path diversity. The second part of theactivity encompasses the development of two breadboard prototypes for signal diversity and combination, one for the user terminal side (forward link) and at the gateway (return link). Initially, a waveform generator may be used to stimulate the receivers. The receivers should be capable of receiving a transmit diversity scheme such as the Alamouti space time block coding assuming two transmitters, oralternative schemes such as interference cancellation at the gateway for more than two transmitters, preferably not requiring full amplitude and phase channel state information at the transmitter side. The breadboard prototypes shall also realise the channel estimation algorithms. Procurement Policy C1: Activities in open competition limited to non-Large-System Integrators (LSIs)) as prime. LSIs are allowed to participate as sub-contractors. For additional information please go to EMITS news “Industrial Policy measures for non-primes, SMEs and RD entities in ESA programmes”.