Combining the advantages of FDMA channellized and demodulating repeaters with on board time division multiplex processing for new communication satellite systems

This paper presents a satellite transponder for area coverage service, which is accessed in FDMA by a large number of ground stations, performs individual signal demodulation, and processes on board all input signals by parallel to serial converting them through time division multiplexing. This concept retains the advantages of FDMA, with the high efficiency associated to HPA operated at saturation. Compared with a conventional TDMA system, continuous wave modems can be used at the ground terminals for both up and down links; additionally, the ground station EIRP is minimized due to the on board regeneration of each signal. The system is particularly well suited for a mix of services in domestic multimission applications such as point to point communications, broadcasting, and data collection at low to medium bit rates.