2023/07/10 by Juan Carlos Merlano Duncán, Duncan, Juan Carlos Merlano, Vu Nguyen Ha +15
Engineering · #Advanced MIMO Systems Optimization #Antenna Design and Optimization #FOS: Electrical engineering #Satellite Communication Systems #Signal Processing (eess.SP) #electronic engineering #information engineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2307.04589
openalex publication_date 2023/07/10 · openalex created_date 2023/07/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The space communications industry is challenged to develop a technology that can deliver broadband services to user terminals equipped with miniature antennas, such as handheld devices. One potential solution to establish links with ground users is the deployment of massive antennas in one single spacecraft. However, this is not cost-effective. Aligning with recent NewSpace activities directed toward miniaturization, mass production, and a significant reduction in spacecraft launch costs, an alternative could be distributed beamforming from multiple satellites. In this context, we propose a distributed beamforming modeling technique for wideband signals. We also consider the statistical behavior of the relative geometry of the swarm nodes. The paper assesses the proposed technique via computer simulations, providing interesting results on the beamforming gains in terms of power and the security of the communication against potential eavesdroppers at non-intended pointing angles. This approach paves the way for further exploration of wideband distributed beamforming from satellite swarms in several future communication applications.