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Implementing polarization shift keying over satellite – system design and measurement results
Author(s) -
Arend Lionel,
Sperber Ray,
Marso Michel,
Krause Jens
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
international journal of satellite communications and networking
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.388
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1542-0981
pISSN - 1542-0973
DOI - 10.1002/sat.1112
Subject(s) - computer science , communications satellite , phase shift keying , telecommunications , polarization (electrochemistry) , channel (broadcasting) , electronic engineering , satellite , electrical engineering , bit error rate , physics , engineering , chemistry , astronomy
Summary Polarization shift keying (PolSK) is a digital modulation technique using the state of polarization of an electromagnetic wave as the signalling quantity. PolSK comes from fibre communications, where the channel offers two orthogonal states of polarization. This article develops on the idea to adapt this technology to satellite communications, where similar channel conditions exist. For this purpose, a digital PolSK modem was implemented on a programmable logic board. A proposal for constellation design as well as thoughts on synchronization of PolSK over satellite is presented. The modem was used to demonstrate a 16‐state Polarization Shift Keying link over a commercial satellite in K u band. Measurements have been conducted in a back‐to‐back setup on intermediate frequency and on a K u band transponder simulator to assess the impact of path‐length differences, carrier recovery and non‐linearity. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.