NAL JOURNAL OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS, VOL.

6, 283-288 (1988)

A MODULAR MULTISTAGE APPROACH TO DIGITAL FDM

DEMULTIPLEXING FOR MOBILE SCPC SATELLITE
COMMUNICATIONS
HEINZ GOCKLER

ANT Nndiriclrterlreclrrlik Grnblrl, Post~clr1120, 0-7150 Bnckrrnrrg, F. R. G e m n n y

SUMMARY
A hierarchical multistage method (HMM) for digital clemultiplexing of an FDM signal composed of
L adjacent SCPC signals is described; L is (preferably) a power of two, here L=32. This I-IMM

approach to FDM dernultiplexing applies bandpass sampling and is based on the processing of complexvalued signals by linear-phase FIR filters, where at any stage of processing the respective signals are
always oversampled by two. The simulation results fully confirm the predicted system performance.
An electrical demonstration model constructed by cascading six identical specially designed signal
processors is being built.
FDM demultiplexing Multistage approach Analytic signal processing Oversampling Bandpass
sampling scheme

KEY WORDS

INTRODUCTION
In North America, Japan and Europe digital communications with mobile vehicles via satellite is
currently being investigated.l-' A forward link takes
messages from an earth-station to the satellite, which
retransmits to mobiles; a return link begins at the
mobile, goes up to the satellite and is returned to
the earth-station. The satellite will use spot-beams
to achieve power gain and to facilitate frequency
reuse. Forward links are expected to employ TDM
techniques. A mobile will acquire one such TDM
signal and extract its own traffic from it. Each active
mobile within a spot-beam will be assigned a
different operating centre frequency, applying a
channel frequency spacing of width B. In essence, the
mobile-generated signals gain simultaneous access to
the system by frequency multiplexing and by space
discrimination afforded by the satellite-antenna
pattern.
Following Reference 5 , it is assumed that the
satellite has 19 spot-beams, that up to 3600 mobiles
are to be served simultaneously, and that up to 800
mobiles may be served in a single beam with a
channel frequency spacing of
The last requirement is consistent with appropriately
shaped QPSK signals having a data rate of 9.6 kbls
to be applied in each mobile transmitter: square
root of 40% cosine roll-off filtering in conjunction
with a maxinium frequency offset of 2600 Hz due
to factors such as Doppler shift and oscillator
instabilities.
Simple translation of the FDM uplink at L-band
to C-band would be an inefficient use of power and

0737-28841881030283-06$05 .OO
0 1988 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

spectrum. Furthermore, not all signals in a beam

are destined for the same earth-station, so instead
individual TDM streams to each of the earth-stations
are required. To accomplish the format change
and necessary routing requires extensive signal
processing on board the satellite.
Figure 1 shows a block diagram of the returnlink on-board processing. The received signals
are separated from one another in a frequency
demultiplexer (FDM DEMUX). Each separated
signal is passed to a receiving QPSK modem
(DEMOD) which applies complex signal processing,
producing a digital data stream. These many parallel
streams are recombined into serial TDM streams
for retransmission to the earth-stations.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The object of this paper is to describe the hierarchical
multi-stage method (HMM)for digital FDM-demultiplexing of L=32 SCPC signals in conjunction with
non-ideal band-limitation of the analogue FDM
signal in front of the AID converter. This extended
demultiplexer, in Figure 1 delineated by the
dash-dotted line, is subsequently referred to as the
transmultiplexer (TMUX).
The design of the TMUX (Figure 1) is now
described in more detail. The oscillator frequency
f, of the (analogue) down-converter has to be
selected such that the desired L real signals from
mobiles pass ~maffectedthrough the analogue antialiasing bandpass filter (AAF), of passband width
LB. The final down-conversion to baseband is
achieved by sampling the continuous AAF output
signal with a sampling rate of at least 2LB, consistent
Recei!~edFebrwary 1988
Revised Marclz 1988

antenna

i
i

II

&fG

fsi = LLB

Transrnultiplexer TMUX

Is--------------Multicarrier Dernodulator MCD

Figure 1. Block diagram of a multi-carrier demodulator for L channels, applying cligital signal processing (return link). AAF, analogue
anti-aliasing bandpass filter; fs,, f&,:,,,,
input and output sampling frequency of demultiplcxer (FDM DEMUX); fA, centre frequency of
AA F

with the sampling theorem, using a fast sample-andhold (SIH) circuit cascaded by a relatively slow
analogue-to-digital (AID) converter. Rather than
the minimum possible sampling rate, however,
subsequently oversampling by a factor of two is
applied at the DEMUX input. With this approach
the specifications of the A A F and DEMUX filters
are greatly relaxed; they are relaxed further if the
transition from real to complex (analytic) signal
processing is performed as close to the DEMUX
input as possible. l
Therefore the present TMUX design problem
may be stated as follows: Design a highly modular,
32-channel HMM DEMUX for real input and
complex output sequences. Apply complex signal
processing with oversampling by a factor of two
throughout the DEMUX. Select the A A F centre
frequency f, and the channel allocation within the
A A F passband relative to the input sampling rate,

such that the most efficient HMM DEMUX

implementation results.
THE DIGITAL HMM DEMULTIPLEXER
The 32-channel analogue SCPC-FDM signal to be
demultiplexed digitally is centred at an IF of about
17.5 MHz. In order to satisfy the sampling theorem,
the FDM signal is band-limited by a crystal bandpass
filter (AAF) such that it can be (over)-sampled with
fs, given by equation (2). With this bandpass
sampling scheme, which requires a fast, accurate S/
H circuit and a slow AID converter, the FDM
spectrum of the digitized DEMUX input signal
sD(kT) is folded down to a centre frequency

The tree structure of the most efficient and highly

modular hierarchical multi-stage method adopted
for demultiplexing is shown in Figure 2.'It is

assumed that its 32-channel SCPC-FDM input signal

is given by a complex-valued (analytic) sequence
si(2kT), which is the result of preprocessing in a
digital anti-aliasing filter (DAF). The DAF'O performs the transition from real to complex signal
representation of the digitized FDM signal s,(kT),
and decimates by two. In the following, underlining
indicates that the associated signals or filter coefficients are complex-valued.
In the HMM shown in Figure 2 each cell (block)
splits its complex input signal into two complex
output sequences, each decimated by two. Different
stages and their respective input sampling rates are
distinguished by a (Roman) superscript:
K

{O, I, 11,111, IV, V}

(4)

where K=O stands for D A F

= f,,). Each HMM
cell delivers two different output signals. The two
passbands of an HMM cell, each of bandwidth
B" = &14, are distinguished by AE{O,l}. The two
slot transfer functions H:(exp(jQK)) and RK=2vf1
to be realized by the various HMM cells are
indicated in Figure 2 by the subscript A. It should
be noted that all 31 HMM cells are identical, except
for the D A F necessary for preprocessing.
A more profound understanding of the HMM can
be gained from the associated spectral representation
illustrated in Figure 3. Figure 3(a) shows the
idealized frequency response,,of a linear-phase FIR
half-band filter with the propertics"

and

MODULAR MULTISTAGE DIGITAL FDM DEMULTIPLEXING

Stage: K = 0 (DAF)

II

Ill

1V

Figure 2. Overall block diagram of HMM-DEMUX with one real input and 32 complex output ports, constructed from one DAF for
preprocessing and 31 identical I~ierarchicallycascaded HMM cells, which all operate at a stage individual sampling rate AT1 = l/T"+'

where 1.1 represents the filter length. From such a

prototype half-band filter are derived the D A F and
all (identical) NMM cells. The various filter transfer
functions with complex coefficients required for the
D A F and HMM cells are immediately obtained by
nlodulating a complex sinusoidal carrier of an
appropriate frequency by the real impulse response
of the prototype half-band filter. Figure 3(b,c) shows
that these carrier frequencies are fJ4 for the DAF,
and ~f$1/8
and 3J;,/8 for the HMM cells, with the
sampling rate?;, given by equation (5), to which all
filters of stage K are related.
As is obvious from Figure 3(c), each DEMUX
output channel is still loaded by a repeatedly aliased
spectral portion adjacent to the spectrum of the
isa able slot signal. This calls for a final band-

limitation, which is accomplished by a non-decimating linear-phase FIR half-band filter with complex
coefficients.12 (This half-band filter is not included
in Figure 2.)
The filters of the HMM-DEMUX have been
designed such that a ~ninimumsignal-to-noise ratio
of 30 dB is achievecl for all 32 DEMUX output
signals after final band-limitation. Thereby an ideal
FDM signal is anticipated at the input port of the
A A F in front of the AID converter. As a result,
the D A F and HMM prototype calls for a symmetric
FIR half-band filter of length 11, whereas the length
of the symmetric half-band filter for final bandlimitation should not be shorter than 19. Figure 4
shows, as an example, the attenuation response of
the DAF.

@
I

Halfband prototype filter for ail HMM s t a g e s and DAF (fsOi = f S i )

( 11 ~

{o,I,u,~,Iv,v}

@
Ia d +
IS,[~")I

DAF (x=O):Real input a n d complex o u t p d s e q u e n c e

Shift of spectrum

5' = L5

, T' =

by t fgf112 :

e ' ~ ( k T N " ) = (-ilk z;(kTXd)

Figure 3. Spectral representation of HMM-DEMUX according to Figure 2: (a) prototype half-band filter for all stages, (b) pieprocessing
by DAF (stage 1<=0),(c) HMM stages KE{I,II,III,IV,V}; h is tile slot number of the particular HMM stage; K-I refers to the preceding
stage and !c-t-I to the following stage

The reported results have been verified by extensive simulation of the system, taking into account
the impact of the analogue anti-aliasing filter, as
can be seen from Table I. An electrical demonstration ~noclelof the DEMUX has been constructed
by cascading six identical versatile stage processors
(VSP), as outlined in Figure 5. Each VSP performs
all
operations
of
the
respective
stage
KE{O,I,II,III,IV,V)of the HMM-DEMUX by applying an appropriate niultiplexing scheme. Test results
for digital hardware have been found to agree with
the simulation results.
CONCLUSION
This paper has described a hierarchical multistage
Inethod (HMM), a very efficient and highly modular

approach to SCPC-FDM demultiplexing on board

a satellite. On a bit level, the operation rate of this
method is well below that of the filter method
described in Reference 13, and, for L=32 and the
specifications adopted, even below that of a novel
approach to the polyphase method of transmultiplexing." l4 Additional key features of the HMMDEMUX are the bandpass sanlpling schenle, oversalnpling by two at any stage, of DSP, processing of
co~izplex-valued(analytic) signals, and exclusive use
of linear-phase FIR filters to minimize degradation
of the phase-sensitive QPSK-SCPC signals to be
processed in the DEMUX.
Its high degree of lnodularity (Figure 2) gives
the HMM-DEMUX the potential of optimizability
(short filters; see Figure 4), ease of manufacturing
and testing, suitability for (dedicated) VLSI realiz-

MODULAR MULTISTAGE DIGITAL FDM DEMULTIPLEXING

Figure 4. Attenuation response o l D A F with coefficients scaled up by 2 and shortened to HI$' = 10 bit, showing rounded coefficients
(solid line) and coefficients obtained by d~screteoptimization (dashed line)

Table I. Signal-to-noise ratio obtained by simulation

with QPSK stimulation of the DEMUX
Signal-to-noise ratio (dB)
Signal
wordlengths

Set 1
w,=16 bit

Set 2
w,=10 bit

Set 3
w,=16 bit

ation, high reliability with or without redundant

VSPs (Figure 5 ) , and reduced overhead circuitry.
In a preliminary assessment study the VLSI (gate
array) implementation of the HMM-DEMUX has
been considered in conjunction with the filters
for final band-limitation. As a result, a power
consumption of less than 50 mW per channel is
expected for the transmultiplexer. This figure is
based on the highly conservative assumption of a
2 p CMOS technology requiring 18 p W per switched
gate and MHz.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Coefficient sets 1 and 2: lilter length r ~ = l l ,coefficient set 3:

r1=7
Signal word-lengths: W, AID conversion; W,,, between HMM
cells; wi, cell inherent
Redundonl V5P

Stoge:

OAF101

HMM I

Easily tsstobta

HMMII

HMMlll

HMMN

HMMV

Number of sepamtad slols:

Slotsomplingrote:
Degree of rnultipl@xing:

fS1

16

Figure 5. Hardware rnultiplexing scheme for HMM-TMUX

This work was supported by the European Space

Technology Centre (ESA-ESTEC), Noordwijk, The
Netherlands, under Contract No. 6497/55. However,
the opinion expressed in this paper is not necessarily
shared by ESTEC. In particular the author is greatly
indebted to G. Bjornstro~n,ESTEC, ancl P. Enders
and H. Eyssele, ANT, for their support in promoting
the reported work, and to his colleagues M.
I-Iagen, H . Scheuermann and.A. Szillus for various
stimulati~lgdiscussions on tbpics treated in this
paper.
REFERENCES
1. F. M. Gardner, 'On-board processing for mobile-satellite
conlrnunications', Final Report, ESTEC Contract 5889184,
Palo Alto, CA, Gardner Research Co., 1985.
2. 'Study of systems and repeaters for future narrowband

3.

4.
5.

6.

com~nunicationsatellites', Phase 2 Final Report, Telespazio,

ESTEC Contract No. 5484/83/NLIGM(SC), 1975.
G. Colombo, W. Heine, K. Jesche, W. Schreitmiiller
and F. Settimo, 'System architecture and management of
advanced regional satellites for land mobile applications', in
Proc. Globecom 1985, Ncw Orleans, LA, pp. 38.2.1-38.2.7.
W . Kriedte and A . Vernucci, 'Advanced regional mobile
satellite system [or the nineties', in Proc. Globeconi 1985,
New Orleans, LA, pp. 38.1.1-38.1.6.
'Study and development of on-board multicarrier
deniodulator [or mobile satellite communications', ESA
Invitation to Tender, A0/1-1816/85/NLIMS, Noordwijk,
1985.
F. Ananasso and E. Saggese, 'A survey on the technology
of multicarrier clemodulators [or FDMAITDM uscr-oriented
satellite systenls', in Proc. Globecom 1985, New Orleans,
LA, pp. 6.1.1-6.1.7.

7. 'Study of a digital on-board multi-carrier dernultiplexer',

INMARSAT Request for Proposal No. 114, London, 1987.
S. H. Gockler and 1-1. Scheuer~nann,'A modular approach to
a digital 60-channel transmultiplexer using directional filters',
IEEE Trntrs. Co~t~t~mti.,
COM-30, 1598-1613 (1982).
9. 13. Gockler, German Patent Application P3,610,195.
10. 1-1. Gockler, German Patent Application P3,621,737.
11. R . E. Crochiere ancl L. R. Rabiner, Multirate Digirnl Sig~inl
Processing, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1983.
12. H . Gockler, German Patent Application P3,705,206.
13. E. Del Re and P. L. Eniiliani, 'An analytic signal approach
for transmultiplexers: Theory and design', IEEE Trot~s.
Comrnlltl., COM-30, 1623-1628 (1982).
14. H. Gockler, 'An analytic signal processing approach to
digital polyphase transniultiplcxing: Theory and design',
in Proc. ISCAS 1988, Espoo, Finland, pp. 2255-2258.