DVB-S2x Enabled Precoding for High Throughput Satellite Systems

Multi-user Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MU-MIMO) has allowed recent releases of terrestrial LTE standards to achieve significant improvements in terms of offered system capacity. The publications of the DVB-S2x standard and particularly of its novel superframe structure is a key enabler for applying similar interference management techniques -such as precoding- to multibeam High Throughput Satellite (HTS) systems. This paper presents results resulting from European Space Agency (ESA) funded R&D activities concerning the practical issues that arise when precoding is applied over an aggressive frequency re-use HTS network. In addressing these issues, the paper also proposes pragmatic solutions that have been developed in order to overcome these limitations. Through the application of a comprehensive system simulator, it is demonstrated that important capacity gains (beyond 40%) are to be expected from applying precoding even after introducing a number of significant practical impairments.