ESA Open Invitation to Tender: 1-11132
Open Date: 15/03/2022 18:09 CEST
Closing Date: 07/06/2022 13:00 CEST

Objective: The objective of the activity is to design, develop and test methodologies and algorithms supporting trade-off analysis, performance evaluation and operation concept for constellations ground networks. The methodologies and algorithms developed will be applied and tested on representative satellite constellations delivering secure services. Targeted Improvements: Enabling the combined optimization of system architecture for secure constellations, aiming to reduce the number of hardware components up to 30%. Description: A number of initiatives are currently looking at possible non geostationary satcom systems for providing more secure services. Those can be either dedicated systems designed to serve governmental customers with very high security requirements or systems aiming to serve both these governmental customers but also to provide secure services to high-end customers (companies, consumer, etc…). To respond to the fast changing landscape of New Satcom Ground, the present activity proposes to develop Ground segment algothms and methodologies for constellations supporting such services, and consisting of one or more satellite networks in potentially different orbits with inter satellite links capability. Those will address capabilities not available today and in particular: -support constellation operating in different orbits with different fade dynamics and with frequencies of operation up to and including Q/V band-allow to select the optimal geographical gateway locations to satisfy several constraints of the constellation (coverage, link availability, system capacity, number of gateway hand-over, terrestrial point-of-presence, proximity to point of interest, proximity to cloud based services, geopolitical constraints, European sovereignty)-perform the sizing of the individual gateway premises location by optimizing the required number of antennas as well as the sizing of the gateway (antenna diameter, output power).-rely both on weather statistical models and historical weather data bases when performing its ground network dimensioning and validation. The developed algorithms will be tested, and their performance evaluated and validated using representative scenarios of future constellations to be developed.

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-TI
IP Measure: N/A
Prog. Reference: E/0534-04A – 4S-Other Act. Prod&T
Tender Type: Open Competition
Open To Tenderers From: AT+BE+CA+CH+CZ+DE+DK+EL+ES+FI+FR+GB+HU+IE+IT+LU+NL+NO+PL+PT+RO
Technology Keywords: 12-B-II-Communication Network Technologies and Protocols