The overarching aim of the QV-LIFT project is to develop the foundation of the Ground Segment Technology for the future Q/V band Terabit SatCom systems.
Focusing on this aim, the project is committed to increase the maturity level of the core satellite communication technologies that will contribute to a more competitive positioning of SatCom European manufacturers in the marketplace.
Core technologies were investigated and developed at two levels of the communication stack: radio hardware and network.
At the radio hardware level, key RF building blocks and subsystems in the Q/V band are foreseen to fill a specific and well known European technology gap. Redefining European state of the art, QV-LIFT developped GaN monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) technology for the Q/V-band ground segment (50GHz). The developed devices are integrated in solid state power amplifier modules, which in turn are integrated with a block upconverter (BUC) to form the radio transmitter of the ground segment. QV-LIFT also developped an integrated low noise block for the receive radio based on European GaAs technology, as well aeronautical and Earth station antennas, RF filters and high performance pedestals. Integrating the above, QV-LIFT delivers
• A nomadic ground station.
• An aeronautical terminal
At the network level, to support handover of communications among multiple gateway nodes, a Q/V band smart gateways management system is developed. This system is able to counteract the propagation impairments which presents one of the main obstacles in the deployment of the Q/V band feeders system. Together QV-LIFT developed all the baseband signal processing required to perform test campaigns.
Both hardware and network developments were integrated and tested on Alphasat using Aldo Paraboni payload as well as existing ground infrastructure by ASI, successfully demonstrating the operation of a smart gateway diversity as well as the opportunities for avionic connectivity at Q/V-bands
