Design and implementation of the next generation Landsat satellite communications system

Grant R. Mah; Michael O’Brien; Howard Garon; Claire Mott; Alan Ames; Ken Dearth

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USGS · 70193004

Design and implementation of the next generation Landsat satellite communications system

Grant R. Mah·Michael O’Brien·Howard Garon·Claire Mott·Alan Ames·Ken Dearth

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Abstract

The next generation Landsat satellite, Landsat 8 (L8), also known as the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), uses a highly spectrally efficient modulation and data formatting approach to provide large amounts of downlink (D/L) bandwidth in a limited X-Band spectrum allocation. In addition to purely data throughput and bandwidth considerations, there were a number of additional constraints based on operational considerations for prevention of interference with the NASA Deep-Space Network (DSN) band just above the L8 D/L band, minimization of jitter contributions to prevent impacts to instrument performance, and the need to provide an interface to the Landsat International Cooperator (IC) community. A series of trade studies were conducted to consider either X- or Ka-Band, modulation type, and antenna coverage type, prior to the release of the request for proposal (RFP) for the spacecraft. Through use of the spectrally efficient rate-7/8 Low-Density Parity-Check error-correction coding and novel filtering, an XBand frequency plan was developed that balances all the constraints and considerations, while providing world-class link performance, fitting 384 Mbits/sec of data into the 375 MHz X-Band allocation with bit-error rates better than 10-12 using an earth-coverage antenna.

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Grant R. Mah, Michael O’Brien, Howard Garon, Claire Mott, Alan Ames, Ken Dearth. 2012. Design and implementation of the next generation Landsat satellite communications system. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70193004

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