Demand-Aware Beam Design and User Scheduling for Precoded Multibeam GEO Satellite Systems

For many years, satellite footprints have been fixed from the design phase until the last day of the satellite operational life. Flexibility in coverage by means of reconfigurable beams is becoming increasingly popular thanks to the recent developments in active antenna systems. On the other hand, spatial frequency reuse combined with precoding has been shown to boost the spectral efficiency while lowering the cost per bit. In this context, and motivated by the unbalanced demand requests of the satellite users, we propose a shift from the traditional system-throughput maximization design towards a demand-Aware design, where a new beam shaping technique and user scheduling are combined to satisfy the users’ demands. Supporting numerical results are provided that validate the effectiveness of the proposed beam planning and scheduling and quantify the benefits over conventional rigid techniques.