WIDEBAND RF OVER IP DEMONSTRATOR (ARTES AT 6B.055)
5, July 2019

ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO9721
Open Date: 01/07/2019
Closing Date: 01/10/2019 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 19.1TT.09
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+HU
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 / Advanced Ground Station Design Concepts
Establishment: ECSAT
Directorate: Directorate Telecom & Integrated Applica
Department: Telecom Technologies,Product&Systems Dep
Division: Technologies and Products Division
Contract Officer: Dorval, Nathalie
Industrial Policy Measure: C2 – Activities in open competition, significant partecipat…
Last Update Date: 01/07/2019
Update Reason: Tender issue

Objective: The objective of the activity is to develop and test a breadboard of a RF over IP acquisition/generation demonstrator for instantaneous signal bandwidthup to 5GHz, jointly with an adaptive compression technique with the scope to minimise the IP data rate required to transmit a given RF bandwidth.Targeted Improvements:Increase of instantaneous bandwidth from 220MHz to 5GHz of RF over IP acquisition/generation units.Description: The interest in Radio frequency (RF) over Internet Protocol (IP) solutions has increased during the latest years for ground segment applications, as itextends the natural range of a connection between an RF signal source and a receiving device with an unprecedented level of flexibility. Its usage inTelemetry, Tracking and Control (TTC) systems and communications provide the ground segment architectures with the flexibility required to managea large number of satelliteswhile keeping the connection links with high availability. Nowadays, the main constraint for this technology to bewidespread employed is the fact that digital RF requires large amounts of data for IP bandwidth transportation, which is especially relevant for thebandwidth channelization as applied in Ka-band or above.This activity shall study, develop and test means to minimise the IP data rate required to transport a given RF bandwidth. To this aim, the activity couldcompromise signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) degradation versus synchronization performance, to maximize the achievable bandwidth reduction for theanalogue to digital conversion. An additional technique could be to incorporate a MODCOD detector identifying the active modulation order at a giventime, thus assigning dynamically the minimum adequate number of bits per complex sample. Any other alternative technique beyond state-of-the-art toconvert RF bandwidth into IP bandwidth and vice versa shall be investigated. The selected techniques shall be implemented and tested in an RFover IPacquisition/generation breadboard to verify the effectiveness of the RF over IP technology for instantaneous bandwidths upto 5GHz. The activity shallenable flexible cloud-based ground solutions for upcoming satellite initiatives with a significant marketimpact.Procurement Policy: C(2) = A relevant participation (in terms of quality and quantity) of non-primes (incl. SMEs) is required. For additional information please go to EMITS news “Industrial Policy measures for non-primes, SMEs and RD entities in ESA programmes”.

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