E-band downlink wireless data transmission for future satellite communication

Abstract

Wireless transmission of broadband complex modulated data up to a bit rate of 6Gbit/s in E-band downlink frequency over a record distance of 36.7km is presented. The received signal quality is monitored for the transmitter working in both linear and saturation region. The overall link performance is evaluated in terms of error vector magnitude (EVM) and signal to noise ratio (SNR). The 6Gbit/s QPSK signal was received with an EVM of -11.48dB corresponding to an SNR of 11.46dB and a theoretical BER value of 5 × 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-3</sup> , when the last stage power amplifier in the Tx chain was operating near saturation region. Further, the atmospheric losses are derived from the measurements and compared with the theoretical values calculated from the ITU models for the atmospheric losses due to the dry air and water vapor.