ESA Open Invitation To Tender AO9000
Open Date: 22/06/2017
Closing Date: 05/10/2017 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 16.1TT.04
Prog. Ref.: CC for Advanced Tech
Budget Ref.: E/0505-01C – CC for Advanced Tech
Special Prov.: BE+DK+FR+DE+IT+NL+ES+SE+CH+GB+IE+AT+NO+FI+PT+GR+LU+CZ+RO+CA
Tender Type: C
Price Range: > 500 KEURO
Products: Ground Segment / Ground Station / Baseband equipment / Telemetry and Telecommand equipment, Tracking, Ranging and Doppler measurement equipment, CODECS, …
Techology Domains: RF Systems, Payloads and Technologies / Telecommunication Systems/Subsystems / Telecom Signal Processing / RF Systems, Payloads and Technologies / Telecommunication Systems/Subsystems / Networking Techniques / RF Systems, Payloads and Technologies / Telecommunication Systems/Subsystems / Telecom Equipment
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate Telecom & Integrated Applica
Department: Telecom Technologies,Product&Systems Dep
Division: Future Projects Division
Contract Officer: Rinaudo, Nicole
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 22/06/2017
Update Reason: Tender issue

Priority 2 Objective: To develop firmware/hardware and demonstrate over an existing satellite multi-beam network the potential of advanced interference management techniques applied at the transmitter (precoding) or/and at the receiver (multi-user detection). The activity shall also demonstrate terminal synchronization, estimation and feedback algorithms in support of these techniques.Targeted Improvements: Improve the confidence on advanced interference management/mitigation techniques applied at the transmitter (precoding) or/and at the receiver (multi-user detection) through a satellite live demonstration.Depending on the system assumptions, these techniques can increase the capacity of High Throughput Satellites (HTS) between 30% up to 100% under the same on board burden interms of mass and power with a conventional satellite, leading to a substantial cost benefit over the existing generation of HTS andmobile satellite systems.Description: Advanced interference management/mitigation techniques such as precoding and multi-user detection have shown a great potential for improving the system capacity of high frequency re-use multiple spot beam interactive satellite networks. Results from recent ESA feasibility studies demonstrated that the gains are solid even under practical system, payload and terminal assumptions/ impairments. Interference management/mitigation techniques can also provide flexibility in terms of moving traffic among multiple spot beams without requiring additionalon board flexible equipment.The starting point for this activity are the following ARTES and internal activities: (a) Internal work for on Next Generation HTS Systems, ARTES 1: Next GenerationWaveform for Improved Spectral Efficiency, ARTES 5.1: System Demonstrator for Advanced Interference Mitigation Techniques in Satellite Networks and Precoding Demonstrator for Broadband System Forward Links.To reach the necessary Technology Readiness Level (TRL) so that the satellite industry may take advanced interference management /mitigation techniques with minimum risk, a prototyping of the required firmware/hardware as well as a satellite live demonstration are needed. Toward this, soft firmware prototypes (such as Software Defined Radio (SDR)) shall be developed to emulate the gateway and terminal functionalities that are required to realize interference management/mitigation and are beyond the capabilities of currently available hardware. These functionalities are mostly focused on acquiring synchronization, performing channel estimation and cancelling the interference at the terminal and on calculating the precoding matrix, selecting the modulation and coding and scheduling the users at the gateway. For the purpose of the demonstration, also a return channel needs to be implemented in order to feed back the terminal channel estimates.The work logic isas follows:1. Define the operational scenarios, system architectures, type of terminals and gateway, and physical layer techniquesofwhich the satellite live demonstration is representative. The system may be operating in any frequency band providing fixed or nomadic user services.2. Develop the necessary transmitter and receiver prototyping that emulate the functionalities at the gateway andterminal side when advanced interference management techniques are applied.3. Test the advanced interference management transmitter and receivers over a satellite network. The network may be operating in any frequency band. The only pre-condition shall be thepresence of at least two co-channel beams in the network. Preferably, to fully demonstrate the potential of interference management, existing satellite that can achieve full frequency re-use should be used.Priority 2 activities will only be initiated on the explicit request of at least one delegation.

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