Performance considerations for protected wideband satcom

There is increased interest in using transponded payloads to provide jam-resistant links to users. In the type of system we consider, multiple user terminals transmit to a satellite using a coordinated frequency hopping waveform, and the received signals are relayed to a ground processing “hub” terminal for baseband processing. In this paper, expressions for computing end-to-end signal-to-noise ratios for such systems are presented, and some example results are provided. In particular, modeling of effects such as signal suppression, intermodulation noise, and gain setting is discussed. By considering each component of the end-to-end link performance separately, the factors limiting performance are more apparent, enabling the system designer to identify which improvements would have the greatest impact.