Use of trellis-coded modulation for Gigabit/sec transmissions over W-band satellite links

W-band is proposed nowadays as a valuable alternative to overcrowded Ku and Ka bands for high-speed transmission over satellite networks. In such a perspective, some experiments are being carried out, which are targeted to verify the feasibility of exploitation of W-band for the provision of broadband services to residential customers. In this work, we are trying to challenge a very ambitious goal, i.e. to reach a pure data rate of 1Gb/s in a point-to-point W-band upstream LEO satellite connection, with a low bit-error rate (say, e.g., lower than 10^-6 in order to allow a satisfactory Q.o.S. both for video broadcast applications and for TCP/IP-based services). Non-ideal behaviors of the W-band physical layer have been realistically simulated. A transmission solution based on a robust trellis-coded modulation (TCM) has been simulated in order to exploit efficiently the available bandwidth. Simulation results have shown the concrete possibility of reaching the Gb/s connectivity, provided that an accurate design of the TCM modulation scheme is addressed