Cooperative communication for multiple satellite network

When it comes to space communication networks, there are many different kinds of space vehicles that need to communicate with each other, in space as well as with ground terminals and air borne platform. Example: Geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO), Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and UAVs. There is an ever growing demand for higher data rates and minimal redundancy, with satellites and various space platforms travelling at high speeds relative to each other and relative to the ground establishing such links can prove to be a real challenge when Doppler Effect and line of sight (LOS) can play a significant role in SONET timing and synchronization. As the number of users grows the space communication links need to address several types of coding and modulation. This paper analyzes the use of cooperative communication techniques for point-to-point and point-to-multipoint communication links. To this end we start with a simplified single relay model and proceed to analyze the multi-node scenarios. We will then apply the amplify-and-forward, decode-and-forward and coded cooperation protocols to the best case scenario to compute the efficiency and synchronization of the link. The single relay and multi-node scenarios are evaluated on the basis of the signal to noise (SNR) power received and inter channel interference (ICI). The intention is to demonstrate the theoretical performance by simulating outage probability versus spectral efficiency for different relaying protocols. Subsequently we will show the effect of cooperative communication on bandwidth utilization for mobile satellites and space platforms.