Physical layer impairments in DVB-S2 receivers

Digital video broadcasting via satellite is being widely deployed worldwide. The first generation European standard (DVB-S) is a QPSK based system that supports up to 40 Msymb/s transmission rates. The second generation DVB-S2 specification recently finalized incorporates higher order modulations from 8PSK to 32 APSK. Physical layer impairments on the transmit-receive link include those introduced by the channel, such as reflections and interference, as well as those induced by various components in the system, such as tuner I/Q imbalance or amplifier non-linearity. These impairments degrade the received SNR and may in some cases affect the convergence behavior of various loops in the receiver. The paper provides a qualitative and quantitative description of the system and channel impairments and their effects on the received cluster SNR.