Objective
Project SECOMS/ABATE aims to define the system elements and to develop the related technologies for the future advanced satellite mobile multimedia service operating at Ka and EHF frequency bands and capable to provide the widest class of broadband mobile services also in hostile environment such as the land mobile and aeronautical ones. The 20/30 GHz and 40/45 GHz bands are considered for first and second generation service respectively. Satellite trials are envisaged to validate the system choices and the developed technologies. Contributions to frequency co-ordination, to Ka / EHF channel model and standards definition are elaborated too.
The payload, allocated on geostationary satellites, adopts on-board processing and multibeam antennas, to achieve efficient use of the satellite resources by using ultra small aperture terminals. The technology developments are aimed at investigating the feasibility, in the framework of the future (second generation) enhanced system and at specifying, designing, developing and testing two user terminal prototypes, for vehicles and planes respectively, to be used in the framework of the first generation system. The developed technology could be exploited also for LEO and MEO scenarios. SECOMS/ABATE trials aim to demonstrate interactive mobile multimedia service, supporting video coded sequences, to verify that the technological developments are fulfilled and to characterise the satellite transmission channel.
SECOMS/ABATE project has developed the target satellite system concept, the 20 GHz land mobile array antenna and RF front end prototypes, the advanced 40 GHz LNA MMIC and 45 GHz HPA MMIC for the user terminals. The project has successfully executed airplane flight trials for 40/50 GHz narrowband and wideband channel characterisation tests, and the campaign of propagation measurements at 20/40/50 GHz based on the Italsat beacon.
The expected results are the consolidation of the target satellite system design, the finalisation of the SECOMS demonstration phase for multimedia land mobile link via Italsat and of the ABATE demonstration phase for aeronautical broadband satellite link. These planned results, together with the technology developments, will be the basis for the recommendation generation concerning the system architecture, terminals and standards relevant to the two way mobile "multimedia" service.
Expected Impact
A huge potential market is foreseen assuming the project outcomes utilisation in the frame of the advanced interactive multimedia via satellite, of the UMTS and of the anticipated Global Information Infrastructure. SECOMS/ABATE has the potential to bring a break-through in satellite multimedia communications, also considering the promising perspectives, which are indicated by qualified satellite service operators and the users attitude emerging from market survey questionnaires.
Main contributions to the programme objectives:
Main deliverables
Validation of high speed mobile communication capabilities (up to 384 kb/s) and with interconnection to the terrestrial network via a Ka band satellite (Italsat)
Contribution to the programme
Validation of satellite communication technologies at Ka band, a particularly challenging frequency band, for the provision of multimedia services, allowing EU industry to acquire knowledge and experience on Ka band systems.
Technical Approach
SECOMS/ABATE is organised in different layers: the first layer is devoted to basic system definition studies, the second layer is devoted to satellite system feasibility studies and the third layer is devoted to terminal technological developments. The last layer is devoted to the definition and assembly of terminal prototypes and demonstrators.
SECOMS/ABATE considers a limited number of geostationary satellites. Compact terminals, of various sizes and capacities (in the range 64 to 2048 Kbps) using small flat array antennas are envisaged: portable terminals, i.e. palmtop, laptop, briefcase types and mobile terminals for utilisation on cars, trains, planes for individual as well as collective utilisation. Moreover high capacity (32 Mbps links) gateways and service provider terminals allow to interface and to interwork with any kind of terrestrial network. Finally a network control centre performs the system management, control and supervision.
Summary of Trial
The trials are organised in three layers. The relevant objectives are:
a) to demonstrate bi-directional broadband data transmission via Italsat satellite using the two developed Ka band terminal prototypes mounted on a van and an airplane respectively; a modified Italsat earth station, simulating the gateway station, will be used on the other side to implement the end-to-end link to support multimedia applications. The trials will also demonstrate the performance of the retained access method (MF-TDMA, CDMA) and the performance of the corresponding electronics developed and implemented in the terminals
b) to extrapolate the results of the above mentioned trials to the EHF band of interest through a characterisation campaign: the measurements will be performed through the 20/40/50 GHz beacon available on the Italsat satellite and of a set of propagation stations
c) to consolidate the characterisation of the narrow and wideband transmission channel both at 20/30 and at 40/45 GHz, through an airborne transmitter, simulating the satellite at various elevation angles and receiving instrumentation mounted on a mobile van.
Key Issues
The selection of cost-effective solutions for services accessible to everybody everywhere, with flexible adaptation to emerging services is of paramount importance for satellite service creation
The adoption of compact, user friendly terminals to support brodband "robust" links on continental-wide coverage represents the major system design driver.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering vehicle engineering aerospace engineering satellite technology
- medical and health sciences health sciences infectious diseases RNA viruses ebola
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Coordinator
00131 Roma
Italy
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