MIMO Applications for Multibeam Satellites

High throughput satellites employing multibeam antennas and full frequency reuse for broadband satellite services are considered in this paper. Such architectures offer, for example, a cost-effective solution to optimize data delivery and extend the coverage areas in future 5G networks. We propose the application of the multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) technology in both the feeder link and the multiuser downlink. Spatial multiplexing of different data streams is performed in a common feeder beam. In the user links, MIMO with multiple beams is exploited to simultaneously serve different users in the same frequency channel. Under particular design constraints, effective spatial separation of the multiple user signals is possible. To mitigate the inter-stream interference in the MIMO feeder link as well as the multiuser downlink, precoding of the transmit signals is applied. Simulation results illustrate the performance gains in terms of sum throughput.