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Wideband-CDMA approaches for the satellite UMTS component

Chapter · January 1999

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4471-0809-2_15

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Wideband-CDMA Approaches For The Satellite UMTS
Component

R. De Gaudenzi (*), G. Gallinaro (**), M. Ruggieri (***),

F.Vatalaro (***), A. Vernucci (**)

(*) ESTEC, Keplerlaan 1 Postbus 299, 2200 AG Noordwjik The Netherlands

(**) Space Engineering S.p.A., via dei Berio 91, I-00155 Roma Italy
(***) Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettronica - Università di Roma Tor Vergata, via
di Tor Vergata, I-00133 Roma Italy

Abstract
The recent ETSI decision to endorse techniques based upon wideband-
CDMA approaches for terrestrial UMTS (T-UMTS) will certainly constitute an
important driver to orientate the corresponding choice for the satellite UMTS (S-
UMTS) component, as a similarity in the access solution would certainly contribute
to making dual-mode user-terminals more cost-effective.
An access system suitable for via-satellite applications shall be devised
keeping in mind the need to face a number of challenging requirements, such as
reduced power margin with respect to T-UMTS, significant propagation delay, high
frequency error due to doppler shift especially for the Low-altitude Earth Orbit
(LEO) case, difficulty to implement a coherent-demodulation return-link, the need,
for the S-UMTS case, to adopt a satellite-diversity technique which requires a
suitable support from the access scheme.
Conversely, for S-UMTS, the propagation environment is usually more
benign than that found in T-UMTS, mainly because of its Rician characteristics
(C/M typically > 10 dB), compared to the lack of a Line-Of-Sight (LOS)
component, as normally occurring in the T-UMTS case.
After briefly reviewing the solutions proposed or adopted for T-UMTS, this
paper proposes an access scheme for S-UMTS capable of suiting the above listed
constraints, while achieving maximum commonality with the recently endorsed T-
UMTS schemes.
This paper is based on the initial outcomes of a work activity which a team
led by Space Engineering is performing under ESA contract [1], for defining and
assessing in detail an access scheme suitable for S-UMTS, and for implementing a
comprehensive test-bed capable of demonstrating its performance in a simulated
via-satellite propagation environment.
1. Introduction
The rapidly growing wireless communication market is already introducing
data services on top of voice to answer the request for Internet access capability
from hand-held or palm-top terminals.
Unfortunately, the data rates supported by second-generation digital cellular
networks (e.g. GSM) are rather limited and not matched to Internet browsing,
electronic document transfer and other multi-media services like video-
conferencing.
In the general IMT-2000 standardisation frame pursued by the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU), the European Telecommunication Standardisa-
tion Institute (ETSI) sponsored Universal Mobile Telecommunication System
(UMTS) is aiming at the definition of a unified third-generation global wireless
system operating in the 2 GHz band. The UMTS is expected to support a wide
range of connection-oriented and connectionless services with data rates up to 384
Kbit/s in outdoor and up to 2 Mbit/s in indoor environments. The service bit rate
can be negotiated at call setup or even on a frame by frame basis in a very flexible
way. By service and terminal classes definition, the standardisation effort has
identified the core network functionalities that are radio interface independent.
While the non radio-dependent core network will most likely encompass
heterogeneous network technologies, radio technologies are being standardised in
order to maximise the global system nature. A large effort is presently devoted to
the selection of one or more air-interface proposals capable to efficiently support
UMTS/IMT-2000 requirements. The global UMTS/IMT-2000 target calls for the
service provision in a host of environments ranging from pico-cell to macro-cells.
The unique satellite role to fill-up macro-cells over scarcely populated regions has
been widely recognised in UMTS/IMT-2000. For the first time the satellite is seen
as an integral part of the next century global personal wireless communication
network. It is also recognised that, due to technological constraints the satellite
services can only represent a sub-set of the Terrestrial-UMTS (T-UMTS).
Nonetheless, successful satellite integration in the more general UMTS framework
calls for the definition of an efficient yet flexible air-interface well matched to the
satellite mobile environment. In this framework, ESA has undertaken an S-UMTS
air interface study and laboratory demonstration activity the early results of which
are summarised in the following. The S-UMTS air interface definition has been
performed with a close look to the ongoing ETSI T-UMTS standardisation
activities in order to maximise commonality. Exploitation of a common T-UMTS
technology will in fact contribute to largely reducing the dual-mode user terminal
cost and size thus boosting S-UMTS commercial opportunities.
The paper is organised as follows: in Section 2 the latest UMTS
developments are outlined; in Section 3 the S-UMTS issues and approaches are
described; in Section 4 the proposed CDMA approach is presented; in Section 5 the
early assessment results are displayed and commented; in Section 6 some future
work perspectives are outlined and, finally, in Section 7 conclusions are drawn.
2. Latest UMTS Developments
Main technical issues for the S-UMTS must take into account corresponding
choices already made for the T-UMTS component in order to facilitate dual-mode
(satellite/terrestrial) integration and to lower cost and complexity. The excellent
performance of CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) in cellular systems
suggested the use of an improved wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) technolgy for
third-generation systems [2].
An outstanding feature of any CDMA cellular system [3-5] is universal
frequency reuse, which gives the potential for large system capacity, yields
maximum flexibility in resource assignment, and allows implementation of soft
handover algorithms. Universal frequency reuse is accomplished by proper use of
signature sequences in a classical direct-sequence spread-spectrum transmission. In
the forward link (base station to mobile users) it is possible, within a cell, to have
synchronous CDMA. Conversely, in the return link asynchronous CDMA was
adopted in the IS-95 second-generation cellular system [5].
A significant effort was paid by ETSI SMG2 for selecting an air interface
concept flexible enough to efficiently cope with the UMTS requirement. This work
has produced the UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial radio Access) proposal that was
submitted (in June 1998) as a candidate RTT (Radio Transmission Technology) to
ITU-R for standardisation in the frame of the IMT-2000 program. Several air
interface concepts were evaluated by ETSI SMG2 but at the end of the evaluation
process two concepts were identified upon which to base the UTRA system. The
first concept is based on a wideband CDMA system with a minimum bandwidth of
5 MHz. This concept was considered by ETSI as the preferable approach for
operation on the FDD (Frequency Division Duplexing) bandwidth. The other
approach is based on a hybrid TDMA/CDMA scheme that was considered
particularly suitable for operation in TDD (Time Division Duplexing) mode. The
two concepts were merged in the UTRA proposal and distinguished as different
operating modes (FDD and TDD).
As for the UTRA FDD mode, which is the most interesting one for an
extension to the satellite environment, its main characteristics are summarised
below.
The basic chip rate is 4.096 Mchip/s (expandable to 8.192 and 16.384
Mchip/s) in order to fit a 5 MHz channel. Transmitted data are structured in frames
of 10 ms. Coherent demodulation is proposed for both the up- and down-link. To
support coherent demodulation, reference symbols are transmitted on an auxiliary
channel (also referred as the Dedicated Physical Control CHannel, DPCCH) which
is associated to each traffic channel (referred as the Dedicated Physical Data
CHannel, DPDCH). The use of reference symbols on the control channel also for
the down-link (instead of the common pilot of IS-95) opens the road to the use of
adaptive antennas synthesising an ad-hoc beam for each user.
The DPCCH also carry physical-layer signalling for supporting the power
control function and data rate agility. Thanks to the signalling carried on the
DPCCH (which is transmitted at constant data rate), the DPDCH data rate may
change on a frame-by frame basis according to the service requirements.
On the down-link, the DPDCH and the DPCCH are time multiplexed, whilst,
on the up-link, they are transmitted in phase quadrature.
As far as modulation and spreading are concerned, QPSK modulation with
binary spreading and scrambling was selected for the down-link as shown in fig. 1.

Data Channel
S/P Spreading
Code
Scrambling
Code

Figure 1. Downlink modulation and spreading approach.

According to such an approach, the I and Q data bits of each time
multiplexed DPDCH/DPCCH are spread with the same binary channelisation code.
Different channelization codes are used for each DPDCH/DPCCH transmitted by
the same BS (Base Station). All the DPDCH/DPCCH of the same BS are further
scrambled with a unique binary randomisation (scrambling) code.
On the up-link, BPSK modulation is used for both the DPDCH and DPCCH.
The two channels are each scrambled with a separate binary channelization code
and the two resulting binary sequences are mapped to a complex sequence which is
complex scrambled by the unique complex randomisation code (fig. 2) which is
assigned by the BS to the Mobile Station (MS). The complex scrambling concept
allows to reduce IQ power imbalance, which would otherwise severely degrade the
up-link signal detection due to the MS amplifier non-linearity
To support variable bit rate on the data channel, Orthogonal Variable
Spreading Factor (OVSF) codes [6] are proposed for use as channelization codes.
These codes are essentially Walsh sequences of variable length according to the
requested spreading factor. This approach allows to implement multiple data rate
transmission without the need to implement multiple correlators (or matched filters)
as it would happen in a multicode strategy. Using such codes, the channel symbol
rate on the DPDCH can assume (for the basic chip rate mode) values on the set
4.096/2k Mbit/s (k=0, …, 6), i.e. between 16 Ksymbols/s and 1 Msymbols/s.
Higher symbol rates can be obtained, via a multicode approach, by allocating more
DPDCH.
As far as actual coding is concerned, convolutional coding is used (r=1/2 or
1/3, k=9) for services requiring a BER=10 -3. Concatenated coding can be used for
lower BER. Other coding options (notably turbo codes) are currently under
evaluation. The possibility to bypass FEC coding is also envisaged for those
services which uses their own coding. After convolutional coding, a block
interleaving spanning a whole frame is applied. The possibility to increase the block
interleaving length up to 15 frames (150 ms.) for non delay sensitive services is also
available.
WH 1

Spread

CI
DPDCH I Channel
Spread

-
Optional
Spread
Code
+
CQ

Spread

Gain
CI

DPCCH
Spread
WH 2

Spread
CQ

a)
Channelization
codes
(OVSF)
WHi
cos( t)

I cI+j cQ copt Real p(t)

DPDCH

I+jQ
WHj sin( t)

Q j Imag p(t)
DPCCH

Gain

b)
Figure 2. Spreading/modulation for the up-link dedicated physical channels in
normal (a) and complex (b) notation.

3. S-UMTS Issues and Approaches

For a W-CDMA option main technical issues are related to the need to offer
a very large system capacity and to allow flexible provision of a large set of
multimedia services. In particular, optimisation of system capacity may lead to the
selection of slightly different approaches, especially at physical and link layer levels
for the satellite component, which will eventually motivate the adoption of a two-
mode (or even a three-mode) mobile terminal (MT) configuration, supporting
different air T and S interfaces. Main air interface problems are conceptually
similar for the terrestrial component and for the satellite component, particularly if
the selected satellite constellation is a LEO constellation, which is the most
appealing choice to increase system capacity. In spite of that, the engineering
problem is often different due to the different practical impact of the channel
impairments, and to different implementations for both T-UMTS and S-UMTS
architectures.
Channel behaviour is different for both T-UMTS and LEO-based S-UMTS.
The T-UMTS channel is likely to be affected by Rayleigh fast fading and lognormal
short-term power fluctuation. A line-of-sight (LOS) component, which reverts the
fast fading to be Rice distributed, can only be expected in specific microcellular
environments, while in the majority of situations the LOS component is absent.
Under this assumption, the presence of a Rake receiver is advisable, as in case of
IS-95 [5], so that many Rayleigh rays may be collected (at least two or three) so
providing the typical advantages of diversity, increasing power level and equalising
its otherwise fast fluctuations. Due to the larger free space loss (typically 20 dB, or
more) in case of a LEO satellite Ricean (or at least Rice-lognormal) behaviour must
be pursued, which means that this system component is operative when a LOS ray
is present. To exploit the advantages of a Rake receiver, in this case the diversity
condition may be artificially realised through usage of more than one satellite
(satellite diversity).
Since in case of CDMA all users in a cell (or spot) share the same frequency
band, a stronger signal virtually uses a larger part of the available resource, thus
lowering the total number of users that a given station can serve. This is usually
identified as the near-far problem. Therefore, power control must be implemented
in order to ensure that all received signals have very closely the same power level.
As in the case of T-UMTS, also the satellite component must operate under
conditions of tight power control, not to waste system capacity. Power level
variations are due to two different causes:
 satellites motion1 (geographical effect),
 fading and shadowing (environmental effect).
For a LEO constellation, even if the user terminal is stationary, the serving
satellite is moving, so that the free space loss is not constant. In addition to that, it is
most likely that during the ongoing conversation a satellite handover may occur, so
tending to produce an even larger variation in power level. Power level fluctuations
due to the geographical effect may typically be in the range 5 to 10 dB. A major
power level variation effect is due to the local environment in which the MT is
located. In fact, the signal level may be severely shadowed by hills, trees, and
buildings; the car's body, and the head of the user can also have a non-negligible
impact. Shadowing can lead to several ten dB of excess attenuation and can cause
link outage.
Within the present project an existing software simulation tool (SATLIN)
was improved to evaluate LEO system performance in the presence of all main kind

1
This effect tend to be compensated by the so called iso-flux antenna design that
attempts to equalize the geometry dependent path loss with antenna gain shaping.
of impairments and countermeasures which can be present in the S-UMTS scenario
[7]. For both forward and return links, system impairments taken into account are
power fluctuations due to both the geographical effect over round earth, and the
environmental effects due to shadowing under varying elevation angles, and time-
variant interference produced by other users. For different multiple access schemes,
including CDMA, several countermeasures have been considered, taking into
account realistic power control strategies for both links, satellite diversity, and
interference reduction techniques [7].
Similarly to IS-95, in the satellite forward link (gateway station-to-mobile
terminal), where all signals per spot can be easily synchronised, a single pilot can
be inserted to achieve coherent detection at the MT and to adjust power level in
return direction. Differently from IS-95, in the return link a pilot can be paired to
each information signal. The reduction in power level (around 20% power on pilot
is typical) is balanced by the benefit of coherent detection at the gateway. There are
two strategies for the transmission of the pilot signal (see [8] and references
therein):
 TDMP (Time Domain Multiplexed Pilot): insertion of known symbols in the
data stream in pre-assigned time slots;
 CDMP (Code Division Multiplexed Pilot): insertion of continuous pilot signal
with an associated spreading code.
Satellite diversity aims at providing increased visibility anywhere and
anytime, with a proper constellation design. As mentioned above, this gives the
advantage of allowing the use of Rake receivers, and also allows implementing
soft-handover algorithms. In a CDMA system the advantage in terms of increased
power level comes for free in the return link, due to the wide beam of the MT
antenna. On the contrary, in the forward link to achieve satellite diversity the
gateway must purposely deliver the same signal towards two (or three) satellites,
and this must be done judiciously not to waste system capacity. In practice, in the
forward link satellite diversity is implemented only to assist handover.
For the W-CDMA S-UMTS component several approaches in soft-handover
implementation have been identified [9]. Some of them are (list not exhaustive of
all possibilities):
 conventional (hard-) handover: one serving satellite, a new satellite comes in
and replaces it;
 diversity start-up: one serving satellite, a new satellite comes in and is used in
conjunction;
 diversity enhancement: two serving satellites, a new satellite comes in and is
used in conjunction;
 double diversity handover: two serving satellites, a new satellite comes in and
replaces one;
 triple diversity handover: three serving satellites, a new satellite comes in and
replaces one;
 diversity fall-back: three serving satellites, one satellite drops;
 diversity shutdown: two serving satellites, one satellite drops.
In addition to the usage of signal combining (maximal ratio, equal gain, etc.)
techniques, an appropriate protocol must be implemented to allow usage of above
alternatives, compromising call quality and system capacity.

4. Proposed CDMA Approach

Among the above mentioned “ESA activity”[1] results, an important
outcome was the formulation of a S-UMTS proposal based on W-CDMA, which
has also been translated into a formal submission to the ITU [10]. Consistently with
the general guidelines presented in sect. 1, this proposal was derived from the ETSI
UTRA proposal, incorporating the minimal changes needed to suit the specific
satellite environment constraints; this explains the large degree of commonality
between the herein described S-UMTS proposal and the UTRA approach.
The main driving factors, in addition to the harmonisation with the terrestrial
T-UMTS proposals, were the introduction of new advanced features with respect to
second generation mobile satellite systems (even if based on CDMA like
Globalstar) aiming at improving the power and spectrum efficiency, and hence the
cost effectiveness, as well as the service flexibility of the satellite system. In
particular, the following features are supported:
 coherent return link
 multi-user detection scheme on the both the forward and return link
 reduction of overhead due to the use of a common pilot/beam approach
 compatibility with possible adaptive antenna systems
 a wide range of bearer services (up to 144 Kbit/s)
Two chip rate options are supported: a 4.096 Mchip/s option (the same as the
basic chip rate in UTRA proposal) and an half rate option (2.048 Mchip/s) which
may be more suitable in a multi-operator environment where bandwidth limitation
may arise.
The same type of physical channel as in the UTRA proposal are defined.
Hence, for each dedicated data channel (DPDCH) a dedicated control channel exists
(DPCCH) which has the same purpose as in the T-UMTS system, i.e. to support
coherent demodulation (TDMP pilot insertion scheme), power control functions 2
and data rate agility.
Fig. 3 shows the frame structure of the DPDCH and DPCCH. The frame
length can be either 10 ms. (as in UTRA) or 20 ms. when the half chip rate option is
adopted.

2
Due to the large satellite propagation time, up/down power control commands rate
is reduced compared to UTRA to a single command/frame.
 The forward link modulation and spreading strategy is similar to that of the
UTRA proposal (see fig. 1). However, dual-BPSK instead of QPSK modulation is
proposed for the very low data rate services (<8 Kbit/s) to reduce the sensitivity to
phase and frequency jitter. Dual-BPSK modulation requires that two channelization
codes be assigned to the user instead of one.
DPCCH DPDCH
Pilot TPC/FCH
symbol bits Data
Ts= 0.625ms or 1.25 ms.

Slot #1 Slot #2 Slot # i Slot #16

Tf =10 ms or 20 ms.
a) forward link

Data
DPDCH Ndata Bits

Pilot UW TPC/FCH
DPCCH Npilot bits Nu bits Nr bits

Ts=0.625 ms. or 1,25 ms

Slot #1 Slot #2 Slot # i Slot #16

Tf = 10 ms. or 20 ms

b) return link
Figure 3. Frame Structure of the Forward and Return Link Dedicated
Physical Channels (DDPCH/DCPCH).

Another difference with respect to the UTRA proposal is the use of a short
randomisation (scrambling) code (an extended Gold codes of length 256 chips)
since benefit may arise from the use of adaptive linear interference mitigation
techniques even on the forward link [11], [12]. Differently from the terrestrial case,
in fact, the forward link in a satellite environment is likely to represent the actual
bottleneck as far as capacity is concerned. On-board power is a scarce resource and
its use has to be optimised. In this respect, mitigation of interference on the forward
link may thus lead to a reduction of the required satellite power and/or capacity and
quality of service increase.
 Common Control Physical Channels (CCPCH) will be available on the
forward link. In particular a Primary CCPCH will carry the Broadcast Control
CHannel (BCCH) as well as reference symbols modulated with a low rate pattern to
extend the time ambiguity range as necessary for supporting satellite diversity
operation on the forward link. The primary CCPCH has a fixed transmission rate
(16 Kbit/s in the full chip rate option and 8 Kbit/s in the half chip rate option).
On the return link, the same modulation and spreading approach as in UTRA
is instead proposed (fig. 2). To support time ambiguity range extension for satellite
diversity operation, a Unique Word (UW) is modulated on some of the reference
symbols carried by the DPCCH.
A Similar approach as in UTRA is proposed for the Random Access
CHannel (RACH). A longer preamble sequence is however needed for the satellite
application (48 symbols against 16 in the terrestrial case). A CDMP pilot insertion
scheme has been selected for the reverse link.
Initial forward link acquisition is performed by means of a common pilot.
The 256 chips long pilot channelization code is known (typically the all zero
sequence code).
A mobile terminal at the switch on will search for the randomisation code of
the common pilot. If neither mobile location information nor satellite positioning
information is available, the mobile terminal has to search for all possible
randomisation codes.
For reducing the power allocated to the common pilot, a discontinuous pilot
is being investigated. In this option, only one period out of ten of the pilot
scrambling code is transmitted. With the discontinuous pilot a lower average power
can be used without degradation of the initial acquisition performances.
Randomisation code allocation can be done according to several strategies
also depending on the constellation and payload (transparent or regenerative) types
as well as the degree of synchronisation accuracy of the Land Earth Stations (LES).
For regenerative payloads (or transparent payloads with synchronised LES),
each satellite will typically use a single randomisation code. Different cyclic shift of
the same randomisation code will be assigned to adjacent beams of the same
satellite. Frames on adjacent beams are offset by a small integer number of symbols
plus few chips representing the cyclic shift of the code.
To reduce the number of codes to search, especially in case the satellite
constellation is composed by a large number of spacecraft, scrambling code reuse
between different satellites may be planned in order that satellites having the same
coverage area never reuse the same code. Clearly, knowing the mobile position and
satellite ephemeris could accelerate the search process. For transparent satellites,
with non-synchronised LES, a different scrambling code can be assigned to each
couple LES-satellite with an increase of the total number of codes to be searched.
Code reuse can still be planned, however, to limit the number of codes to be
searched during cold start-up.
 For a given code to be searched, if a satellite using that code is actually in
visibility, more correlation peaks, in a single code period, will be usually detected,
each corresponding (disregarding multipath) to the different phases of the same
scrambling code used in adjacent beams. The highest peak will be chosen. Once a
pilot has been acquired, the primary CCPCH can be despread being the primary
CCPCH scrambling code a system constant. The BCCH also contain a list of
candidate satellites with the associated scrambling codes in order to accelerate the
other satellite acquisition.

5. Early Assessment Results

An extensive analysis and simulation work was started with the aim to
validate the proposed S-UMTS access. Some of the obtained results are here
summarised. Fig. 4 shows the mean time to acquisition of the forward link pilot
evaluated as a function of the chip energy to thermal noise density, Ec/No. The
computation assumes that the user is at the cross-point of three equal loaded beams
and that in each beam only 3.3% of the beam power is dedicated to the pilot. The
possibility that the frequency is in error of up to 20 KHz was considered.

Figure 4. Forward link mean acquisition time (ms.) versus pilot thermal Ec/N0
for a continuous and bursty pilot. Average pilot power equal to 3.3%
of the total beam power. M is the number of post integration. The
assumed duty cycle for the bursty pilot correspond to one code
period out of ten transmitted.

To reduce the acquisition time a matched filter processor has been

considered with a parallel frequency search through the use of the swivelled FFT
concept [13]. In particular, a bank of 3 frequency shifted FFT’s each one of 16
points has been assumed. Each FFT point is actually the result of a coherent
integration over an interval of 16 chips. Hence the use of the FFT allows to extend
the coherent integration interval to the whole code period (256 chips) whilst
minimising the impact of the frequency error. Actually, not all the points in the FFT
needs to be computed because most of the points are associated to frequency errors
much larger than the maximum expected frequency error. Hence in practice a DFT
algorithm may be more efficient than an FFT one. The use of the swivelling
concept, clearly gives a performance advantage at the expense of an increase of the
acquisition circuitry complexity.

Figure 5. Trade-off between coherent BPSK modulation and non coherent (64-
Walsh-Hadamard) or differentially coherent modulation on the
return link.

It was found that the bursty pilot is less interference sensitive with respect to
a continuous pilot tone, and since it is expected the system to operate in high
interference conditions, from an operative point of view this feature is of great
interest.
A great effort has been dedicated to the trade-off between BPSK and QPSK
modulation on the forward link as well as between coherent and non coherent
modulation on the return link. In the absence of non-ideal effects such as carrier
phase synchronization errors QPSK with real spreading was found optimal from the
MMSE interference-mitigating detector point of view [14].
Fig. 5 summarises the trade-off between the conventional 64-Walsh
Hadamard (WH) non coherent modulation and the coherent BPSK modulation. The
Ep/No factor on the abscissa represent the Eb/No corrected to take into account the
overhead incurred by the transmission of the quadrature reference carrier. A gain
higher than 1 dB is provided by the proposed approach against the 64-WH
modulation even at very low symbol rates (up to 2.4 Kbit/s).
 Fig. 6 shows the forward link performances, also including the effect of
frequency jitter (in addition to phase noise) coming from a practical carrier
frequency offset estimator. It is apparent that QPSK modulation is not suitable for
bit rate lower than 8 Kbit/s for which BPSK or dual-BPSK modulation have to be
used to avoid excessive performance degradation.

Figure 6. Performance in presence of frequency jitter. AFC loop bandwidth 6

Hz. Frequency tracking by means of a CPAFC operating on a CW
pilot with C/No of 43.8 dBHz.

6. Future Work
ESA is presently seeking for support from industry and operators to the S-
UMTS radio technology (RTT) proposal discussed above and to its possible
integration in the ETSI UTRA T-UMTS RTT. It is felt that an extended UTRA
RTT incorporating the S-UMTS adaptations outlined above will strengthen the
ETSI proposal position in the world-wide scenario. Next step in the ESA S-UMTS
technical programme of work is to built a complete laboratory test-bed capable to
demonstrate the claimed air-interface features.
The testbed whose development is planned for beginning 1999, will
incorporate the hardware representative of a gateway station and an user terminal.
Although focused on the physical layer, some higher protocol layer functionality
like call set-up, packet access and power control will be implemented . Other user
interference will be generated exploiting arbitrary waveform generators loaded with
signal "chunks". The space segment will be emulated by a dynamic satellite and
orbit simulator capable to real-time generate the time and Doppler shift caused by
the satellite constellation geometry. Also path diversity conditions and channel
fading will be produced. Time variant beam interference of the same and other
satellites will also be generated to test the system under realistic loading conditions.
Successful S-UMTS laboratory demonstration will pave the way to a broader air-
interface validation activity involving the space segment of some second generation
S-PCN system featuring transparent bent-pipe transponder.

7. Conclusions
First-generation mobile satellite systems (e.g. Inmarsat-A, -B, -C, etc.) were
developed with little attention to achieving commonalties with the terrestrial world,
simply because, at that time, no wide-spread land-mobile service was yet in place
(apart from sparse VIP services); furthermore satellite systems were born for
maritime applications, the harmonisation of which with terrestrial services was not
regarded as a real issue due to the separation of the respective coverage areas.
Development of second-generation satellite mobile systems (e.g. Iridium,
Globalstar, etc.) was started just in the very period when the first analog 900-MHz
terrestrial cellular systems were being deployed, but none was expecting, at that
time, that such systems would have shortly flourished up to the extent of
constituting a serious commercial threat to fixed networks. This explains why
limited efforts were initially devoted to harmonising satellite systems with
terrestrial ones which were themselves growing up in different flavors (TACS,
AMPS, GSM, various IS-series, etc.). On the other hand, the technical, economic
and financial challenges that these new emerging satellite systems were going to
face were so huge that little room was probably available to accommodate
additional constraints.
In the present period, in which third-generation systems are being specified
and realised, there is a much clear landscape of the overall mobile communications
market and its evolution tendencies, as well as the attending constraints in terms of
coverage, cost and technology, this fact representing a unique opportunity for
starting an harmonised development of the terrestrial and satellite UMTS
components, not only from the network standpoint but also for the radio interface
aspects.
The importance and the convenience to also pursue this last level of
commonality, opposite to continuing to rely upon proprietary access approaches,
should be duly brought to the attention of those organisations playing a major role,
at world level, in the set-up, operation and planning the evolution of mobile satellite
systems.
The study and development activity, the early results of which are
summarised in the present paper, is aimed to offer a solution which represents a
compromise between the wish to modify the S-UMTS access as little as possible
with respect to that of T-UMTS, and the need to incorporate all those features
which are essential to meet the specific requirements of the satellite environment.
The proposed approach will soon be thoroughly validated by means of a
comprehensive test-bed that will be developed under ESA support as part of the
on-going activity, thus becoming qualified to represent the reference scheme upon
which the various S-UMTS actors will hopefully agree to converge.
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