Capacity analysis of zero-forcing precoding in multibeam satellite systems with rain fading

Multibeam satellite communication (SatCom) with full or aggressive frequency re-use is one of the most promising candidates for next-generation high throughput satellite systems. However, frequency re-use creates interbeam interference which needs to be managed using multiuser precoding techniques in the forward link and multiuser detection techniques in the reverse link. This work considers the forward link of multibeam Sat-Com systems and proposes a novel zero-forcing (ZF) precoding technique that makes use of users' physical location and antenna radiation pattern available at the gateway. Contrary to conventional precoding techniques in multibeam SatCom systems, the proposed precoding technique does not require feedback from user terminals. Numerical results show that the proposed ZF precoder achieves higher ergodic capacity than the conventional ZF precoder. We provide a closed-form approximation for the ergodic capacity of the proposed ZF precoder under rain fading. We also provide a closed-form approximation for computing the moments of the rain fading attenuation which enables us to derive high and low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) expressions of the ergodic capacity in closed-form. Furthermore, an upper bound on the ergodic capacity is obtained. Monte Carlo simulations are used to validate the accuracy of our analysis.