Reconfigurable on-board processing for flexible satellite communication systems using FPGAs

New satellite communication scenarios, especially the so called ”space internet”, require new concepts of flexible satellite payloads. A reconfigurable On-Board- Processor (OBP) based on Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology addresses the needed flexibility. FPGA based reconfigurable OBPs enable the adaption of current use cases for various applications via reconfiguration of the digital signal processing such as signal filtering, regeneration and routing. However, radiation aspects have to be considered as well. We propose a dependable, powerful, reconfigurable and scalable processing platform for on-board processing and discuss its suitability.