Survey of modulation and coding schemes for application in CubeSat systems

Nowadays small satellites are promising tools for space research and communication. However, size restrictions are also limits for power consumption and capacity. One of the ways to improve the throughput is the use appropriate modulation and coding schemes. A suitable channel model was chosen and link budgets were calculated for the appropriate choice of modulation and coding. Different types of modulation schemes were compared. Advantages and properties of p/4-QPSK, OQPSK and GMSK in conjunction with different coding schemes were considered in terms of bit error ratio and spectral parameters.