Multibeam High Throughput Satellite: Hardware Foundation, Resource Allocation, and Precoding

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Abstract
With its wide coverage and uninterrupted service, satellite communication is a critical technology for next-generation 6G communications. High throughput satellite (HTS) systems, utilizing multipoint beam and frequency multiplexing techniques, enable satellite communication capacity of up to Tbps to meet the growing traffic demand. Therefore, it is imperative to review the-state-of-the-art of multibeam HTS systems and identify their associated challenges and perspectives. Firstly, we summarize the multibeam HTS hardware foundations, including ground station systems, on-board payloads, and user terminals. Subsequently, we review the flexible on-board radio resource allocation approaches of bandwidth, power, time slot, and joint allocation schemes of HTS systems to optimize resource utilization and cater to non-uniform service demand. Additionally, we survey multibeam precoding methods for the HTS system to achieve full-frequency reuse and interference cancellation, which are classified according to different deployments such as single gateway precoding, multiple gateway precoding, on-board precoding, and hybrid on-board/on-ground precoding. Finally, we discuss the challenges related to Q/V band link outage, time and frequency synchronization of gateways, the accuracy of channel state information (CSI), payload light-weight development, and the application of deep learning (DL). Research on these topics will contribute to enhancing the performance of HTS systems and finally delivering high-speed data to areas underserved by terrestrial networks.
Funding Information
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (62271376)
  • Guangdong Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholar (2023B1515020079)
  • Italian Ministry of Education and Research in the Framework of the FoReLab Project and the Project GARDEN funded by EU in NextGenerationEU Plan through Italian “Bando Prin (2022-D.D.1409 del 14-09-2022)
  • National Key Research and Development Program of China (2024YFB2907500)
  • U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for TITAN Telecoms Hub (EP/X04047X/2)
  • U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for TITAN Telecoms Hub (EP/Y037243/1)
  • Seatrium New Energy Laboratory, Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) Tier 1 (RT5/23)
  • Seatrium New Energy Laboratory, Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) Tier 1 (RG24/24)

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