Turbo Decoder Development in Regenerative Communications Satellites

For regenerative telecom satellite systems, the turbo decoder has become a basic component of the on-board processing (OBP). This paper presents the algorithm selection choices and the test bench policy during the design process of a communication system critical block such as a turbo decoder compliant with the DVB-RCS standard (digital video broadcast-return channel satellite). The architecture, based on the max-log-map algorithm, is described emphasising results and advantages of the storage requirement reduction policy applied. Secondly, the chosen test policy is presented, it has considered the specific Space environment requirements and difficulties to fulfil performance evaluations of some complex algorithms in a short period of time. This method has allowed a fast debugging and fine-tuning of the design in order to get the best area, frequency, and performance trade-off, together with having sped-up bit error rate (BER) measurements to just days when normally it would have required weeks of operation