SINR Maximization Using a STAR-RIS Equipped Large Aperture Antenna for SATCOM Applications

The rapid increase in the number of satellites increases the amount of signal interference at ground stations, which are typically equipped with large aperture antennas (LAAs). In this work, we propose an interference mitigation solution for satellite communications by placing a simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surface (STAR-RIS) at the first focal point of the LAA exploiting the existing structure and power supply. The goal is to use the STAR-RIS to improve the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the desired satellite in the presence of multiple interferes. We turn the SINR maximization into fractional programming for which we use Dinkelbach's method to find the STAR-RIS coefficients. Our numerical results reveal the effectiveness of our approach in enhancing the SINR at the ground station.