KA-SAT and future HTS systems

Launched in December 2010 KA-SAT represents the first of the current generation of High Throughput Satellites (HTS). With a total system capacity of over 90Gbit/s and the capability of supporting up to a million users, it delivers services akin to those provided by terrestrial ADSL2+. In order to meet increasing demands on capacity, and subsequently on equipment, it is expected that the bandwidth of the TWTA will need to cover 2.9GHz. We discuss the technology employed in KA-SAT and where it is anticipated it will lead us.