Evolution of Space Traveling-Wave Tube Amplifier Requirements and Specifications for Modern Communication Satellites

Complex nonconstant envelope high-order digital modulation schemes used in modern communication satellites bring new requirements for the linearity and power efficiency of the on-board traveling-wave tubes (TWTs). As a result, a reassessment of typical TWT specifications is required. A digital system-level figure-of-merit, the total degradation, is proposed. It accounts for the characteristics of any coded signaling scheme, as well as for the performance of the overall communications link, including cochannel and adjacent channel interference. This figure-of-merit allows for reoptimizing the operating point of currently used TWTs, comparing the end-to-end performance of different tubes, and revising the standard TWT linearity-versus-efficiency requirements based on carrier-to-third-order-intermodulation (IM) ratio (C/IM3), noise power ratio, and carrier-to-noise-plus-IM ratio [C/(N + I)].