Proof of concept effort for demonstrating an all-digital satellite communications earth terminal

The Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate of the U.S. Army's Communications- Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center is executing a proof of concept program to develop and demonstrate an All-Digital Satellite Communications Earth Terminal. The Future Advanced Satellite Terminal (FAST) program initially focuses on the satellite terminal's receive component of the satellite link. The two main efforts under FAST are a multi-carrier wideband digital downconverter and a wideband multi-carrier advanced signal processor. The downconverter is designed to simultaneously capture at L-band Intermediate Frequency (IF) all of the signals in a selectable 125 MHz-wide transponder bandwidth of the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite and convert them into a digital in-phase and quadrature signal. This digitized signal is then passed over an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) VMEBUS International Trade Association (VITA) 49 interface to the wideband multi-carrier advanced signal processor, which will simultaneously process at least eight communications signals. Future plans for a complete transmit and receive terminal capability and a potential migration path from fixed frequency division multiple access (FDMA) carriers to a more dynamic process for allocating bandwidth, decentralized power monitoring and control, and remote terminal control are also discussed.