Satellite link performance characterization of 2 Mb/s IDR channels with Reed-Solomon codec

One alternative for improving the performance of INTELSAT´s intermediate data rate (IDR) service is to use a more robust error correction coding such as the Reed-Solomon (RS) codec. The RS codec when concatenated with the existing Convolutional encoder/Viterbi decoder of IDR modems can improve the modem performance significantly. This paper presents the results of field characterization tests carried out by AT&T, in cooperation with GUATEL, during 1993. The results showed that IDR links upgraded with the RS codec perform substantially better than a conventional IDR. Furthermore, the results at C-band suggest that even at locations that exhibit high rain precipitation, an IDR with the RS codec is expected to operate at a BER lower than 10^-9 for 99.96% of the year