Multi-User MIMO Satellite Communications for Aviation Networks

We investigate the throughput of a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output aviation network where multiple aircraft are connected to a High Throughput Satellite (HTS). We assume full frequency reuse in the downlink and a multibeam antenna architecture with multiple reflectors on the HTS. To maximize the system throughput, we apply zero forcing precoding along with a scheduling algorithm to group multiple aircraft that are simultaneously served with data via space division multiple access. For a more realistic scenario, the flight paths of the airplanes are based on real airline routes, and interference from terrestrial fixed service stations is considered. Our simulation results show that the proposed concept enables a massive throughput increase while the required update rate of the precoder coefficients and the user groups remain moderate.