Efficient Digital Beamforming for Satellite Payloads Using a 2D FFT-Based Parallel Architecture
This paper presents a digital beamforming architecture based on the discrete Fourier transform, designed for medium-Earth orbit satellite payloads to serve multiple ground users. The system leverages a 16×16 16-point two-dimensional fast Fourier transform (2DFFT) to address the growing demand for high-speed data traffic and adaptable satellite communications. The architecture features a routing algorithm for flexible user allocation to any beam position and a cluster-based linear precoding approach to reduce resource and power consumption. Two versions of the 2DFFT module—quantized and non-quantized—are compared in terms of resource usage, power consumption, and performance. Experimental results show that the non-quantized version provides better power efficiency, while the quantized version removes the need for DSP blocks.
Authors
- Piero Angeletti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6058-7593)
- Jorge Luis González Ríos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4415-9649)
- Symeon Chatzinotas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5122-0001)
- Cecilia Marcos Martín (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8861-7376)
- Salvatore D’Addio
- Juan A. Vásquez-Peralvo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7304-095X)
- Stephen M. King (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5484-5530)
- Luis Manuel Garcés-Socarrás (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4164-3673)
- Ti Ti Nguyen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3933-2486)
- Rakesh Palisetty (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3222-6576)
- Vu Nguyen Ha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1325-3480)
- Juan Carlos Merlano Duncán (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9652-679X)
- Geoffrey Eappen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4065-3626)
- Adem Coskun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0987-3070)
- Björn Ottersten (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2298-6774)
- Raudel Cuiman
Institutions
- University of Luxembourg (LU)
- Shiv Nadar University (IN)
- European Space Agency (FR)
Publication Details
- Published
- 2025-05-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1109/iscas56072.2025.11043196
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Satellite Communication Systems
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.99
Funders
- European Space Agency