Frequency-Hopping Techniques for Secure Satellite TT&C: System Analysis & Trade-Offs

Near future on-board telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) equipment for secure communications will likely adopt frequency hopping (FH) instead of direct sequence (DS) spread spectrum (SS) techniques. As far as TT&C systems will have to cope with jammer-to-signal power ratios higher than 50 dB, classical DS approaches must be abandoned in favour of more robust FH solutions. In the following paper we present an overview of synchronization, channel coding and modulation issues for next generation anti-jamming TT&C transponder under study and design at Alcatel Alenia Space-Italy (AAS-I)