Title :
Demonstration of a Ka-band airborne wideband global SATCOM terminal
Author :
Brick, Todd ; Murphy, John ; Delisle, John ; Timmerman, Chayil ; Targonski, Stephen
Author_Institution :
MIT Lincoln Lab., Lexington, MA, USA
fDate :
Oct. 31 2010-Nov. 3 2010
Abstract :
Since 2007, MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL) has supported the Family of Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T) Increment 2 program, recently renamed to the High Data Rate Airborne Terminal (HDR-AT). The primary effort of MIT LL focused on the development of a high data rate (HDR) waveform capable of supporting ~300 Mbps airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (AISR) data links from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to a mobile ground station over the WGS block II satellite. To demonstrate the waveform maturity and applicability to this environment, MIT LL developed and tested a Ka-band airborne test terminal (KATT) to demonstrate the HDR waveform from the airborne terminal. The KATT features a custom high-power feed, a 250 Watt traveling wave tube amplifier (TWTA), a low noise block downconverter (LNB), and a custom tracking and pointing suite. MIT LL used the KATT to transmit both the commercial and HDR DVB-S2 waveforms from their Boeing 707 “Paul Revere” test aircraft to a custom Ka-band ground terminal at MIT LL, and vice-versa.
Keywords :
aircraft communication; low noise amplifiers; remotely operated vehicles; satellite communication; travelling wave tubes; Ka-band airborne wideband global SATCOM terminal; MIT Lincoln Laboratory; WGS block II satellite; data links; family of beyond line-of-sight terminals; high data rate airborne terminal; high data rate waveform; low noise block downconverter; mobile ground station; traveling wave tube amplifier; unmanned aerial vehicle; Aircraft; Digital video broadcasting; Modems; Phase shift keying; Satellites; Testing;
Conference_Titel :
MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE, 2010 - MILCOM 2010
Conference_Location :
San Jose, CA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-8178-1
DOI :
10.1109/MILCOM.2010.5680430