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Communication and TT&C Laboratory

Communication and TT&C Laboratory

The Communication and Tracking, Telemetry, and Command (TT&C) Laboratory develops advanced telecommunication systems, techniques and technologies for communications. Its infrastructure provides tests, analysis and characterisation of Telecom systems consisting of hardware and/or software to:

Evaluate the performance of Telecom algorithms, transmitters or receivers (from prototype to commercial models)
Characterise Telecom and TT&C/PDT hardware prototypes (ground modems and receivers and space transmitters and transponders)
Performing research and rapid prototyping at the beginning of a technology development, altogether applying expert knowledge and specialised equipment within ESA-ESTEC premises
Perform independent verification of technology developments

Contact

For general enquires regarding this TEC location please refer to the assigned contacts:

Matteo Conti

Communication Lab Manager

Alberto Ginesi

Communication Head of Section

JAVIER ROLDAN

TT&C Lab Manager

RICHARD MORGAN-OWEN

TT&C Head of Section

For testing requests, access to lab facilities, training and consultancy services, please refer to:

THIRD PARTY ACTIVITIES

TPA Management system

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Tests, analysis and characterisation of Telecom systems

Gateways and satellite interactive user terminals

The Lab includes state-of-the-art operational and test equipment supporting the experimentation of advanced satcom technologies, such as testbeds for pilot systems and an antenna farm for user links.

LAB FACILITIES - COMMUNICATION

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Lab equipment

The Lab is equipped with:

Interactive Satellite Networks consisting of gateways and satellite interactive user terminals with star and mesh connection capabilities
Uplink stations in Ku, C and Ka bands, wideband satellite channel simulators and DVB-S2/RCS2 Test Bed
TT&C and high-speed data downlink testbeds for Earth observation, science Galileo and telecom applications
Test Equipment for multimedia applications, such as video conferencing endpoints, collaborative working platforms, video streaming equipment
Secure Communications Test Bed, to understand the resilience of certain types of waveforms and receivers to intentional and unintentional jamming.

The facilities offered by the Telecom Lab are grouped under six categories.

1. Space Segment access platforms

These platforms consist of communication systems providing support to R&D, pilots or various kinds of validation activity.

Main parameters

Newtec Dialog hub and terminals
Motorised antennas
DVB-RCS2 satellite terminal

2. Lab and system simulation

These software-based tools are used by engineering teams to assess various aspects of communications systems: signal processing algorithms, digital communication links, satellite link budget, satellite systems dimensioning, satellite networks performance, etc.

List of tools

Payload Joint Optimisation Tool
Mega Constellation Performance Simulator
Aeroterminal Visibility and Performance System Simulator
Machine-To-Machine System Simulator
Physical Layer Simulator for 5G New Radio
Physical Layer Simulator for Optical LEO Direct-To-Earth links
Physical Layer Simulator for Deep Space Optical links
Optical Communications Simulator for Data Relay Systems
Optical Ground Station Network Optimisation Tool
Optical Link Budget Tool

TT & C Laboratory - Credit: ESA-SJM Photography

LAB FACILITIES - TT & C

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1. TT&C AND DATA RELAY

These test beds or technical assets are used for supporting R&D or pilots/validation in the field of broadband communications:

High data rate space transmitter and ground receiver Test Bed (X- and Ka- down converters; CortexHDR, Channel emulator; X-Band RDT RF suitcase)
TT&C space transponders and cubesat transceivers and ground modem Test bed (Cortex CRT-Q, ETSI modem; S-, X- and Ku- up & down converters; frequency and timing; RF SCOE; portable satellite simulator)
Test equipment up to 50GHz
Galileo 1st Generation S and C-Band RF suitcases and ground modems

2. COMMUNICATIONS SECURITY AND PUBLIC SAFETY

These test beds or technical assets are used for supporting R&D or pilots/validation in the field of communications security (e.g. resistance to jamming) and public safety (e.g. alerting or monitoring systems):

Secure Communications Test Bed

TT&C Laboratory - Credit: ESA-SJM Photography

System Simulation Tools

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Payload Joint Optimisation Tool (SPATIAL)

SPATIAL investigates the optimisation of flexible and reconfigurable payloads. The tool is based on payloads with onboard processing and active antennas. It maximises the system throughput of the payload configuration while respecting the user-defined platform constraint.

Including:

Automatic payload dimensioning and throughput estimation
Payload modelling via parameters specified as user inputs
Estimate mass and power consumption of the payload elements
Open-source portal (Julia)
Optimised for speed of throughput computation

Mega Constellation Performance Simulator (LEOSIM)

LEOSIM is optimised for very large NGSO constellations (in the order of 1000 satellites).

The tool can:

Analyse the forward link of DAMA systems
Perform capacity assessment, including throughput analysis and service availability
Simulate interference with GSO systems vs ITU-RR article 22 and from GSO to NGSO
Simulate interference with other NGSO systems including “in-line events” statistics and capacity estimation

Aeroterminal Visibility and Performance System Simulator (AEROSIM)

AEROSIM solves the problem of evaluating the performance of the communication link in all flight conditions. It allows the prompt design of a satellite system and its elements (i.e. number of required satellites, satellite antenna gain, aeroterminal antenna design) that targets to offer link availability during whole the end-to-end flights.

AEROSIM is available to adapt and simulate any industry request for specific functions.

Featuring:

Satellite systems (i.e., orbit, constellation, satellite antenna, frequency etc.)
Aeroterminal antenna pattern
Airplane and/or RPAS models
Area of coverage
Air interface

Machine-to-Machine System Simulator (ESiM2M)

ESiM2M is a powerful and flexible time-driven simulator. It can perform system level simulations to assess the performance of satellite systems for the mMTC scenario. This includes the performance assessment of Random Access (RA) protocols for the direct access of IoT devices to the satellite network (ALOHA, S-ALOHA, CRDSA, E-SSA…),

ESiM2I allows analysis on user defined scenarios - thanks to the possibility to define ad-hoc input files. The tool is optimised for a very large number of user terminals (UTs) deployed on the ground and is suitable for analysis on a wide range of different satellite constellations.

Performing:

Analysis on PLR, throughput and latency for single UTs and geographical basis
Analysis on throughput and buffer dimensioning for single satellites and for the constellation
Analysis on the Feeder Link dimensioning

Architecture includes:

UT Module: UTs generation and deployment accordingly to their characteristics
Orbit Propagation: Satellite positioning and heading, GS tracking over the simulation time
Link Budget (static): Pre-computation of link budget, noise, delay from each point on a regular grid
Link Budget (dynamic): UTs AOD towards satellite and coverage computation, doppler computation, link budget completion
Traffic Generation: Position traffic generation accordingly to UTs average daily traffic
PHY Abstraction: Collision detection, interference assessment, decoding process emulation, KPI raw data collection
KPI Computation: Performance assessment for UTs, satellite constellation and feeder link dimensioning

Physical Layer Simulator for 5G New Radio (5GNR-PHY)

5GNR-PHY simulates end-to-end performance analysis for both uplink and downlink.

The tool features Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) for:

Antenna pattern
Satellite transponder (IMUX, TWTA/SSPA, OMUX – soon DRA)
Configurable channel statistics and impairments
Validity assessment of models and parameter values used in 3GPP documents for Non-Terrestrial Networks, including satellite propagation channel models and statistics.

Optical Ground Station Network Optimization Tool (OGSO)

OGSO is a dynamic software simulation tool for optical wavelengths.

For a given satellite orbit, it optimises the number and the location of the ground stations among a set of given locations.

The tool covers all orbits – LEO, MEO, GEO & beyond – and includes cloud coverage information derived by ERA-Interim total cloud cover field (0.75 deg. spatial resolution/3h time resolution; improved sub-grid resolution with NOAA cloud coverage maps).

The tool determines the percentage of data volume return per station/ jointly for up to 30 Optical Ground Station – finding the optimal combination of OGS.