A DVB-S2 signal analyzer for the Alphasat TDP5 communication experiment

During the design phase of the Q/V-band ground station in Graz/Austria for the Alphasat TDP5 adaptive coding and modulation (ACM) communication experiment, which is based on the DVB-S2 standard, a tool for accurate SNR measurements with high time resolution was needed. State of the art DVB-S2 demodulators with built-in SNR estimators did not satisfy the requirements because the algorithms were not available or they could not be changed. On the other hand, the query times were not predictable. These facts lead to the decision to implement a DVB-S2 signal analyzer on a software defined radio platform, which is able to provide channel state information on a per frame basis. In the current paper, the detailed architecture of the signal analyzer is presented together with simulation and measurement results for different data-aided and non-data-aided SNR estimators.