Lessons Learnt from 10 years of Alphasat Q/V Band Satellite Communication Experiments

It was 2008 when the Italian Space Agency (ASI), on the basis of its well known pioneer position on the scientific analysis of Extremely High Frequency (EHF) satellite communication, successfully proposed to the European Space Agency (ESA) to host an experimental payload working in Q/V band on board the Alphasat GEO satellite. The latter has been launched on July 25, 2013; this large platform hosted the so-called TDP#5 (Technology Demonstration Payload), aimed at performing the first Q-V band telecommunication and propagation experimental campaign. The payload was then renamed in memory of Professor “Aldo Paraboni”, pioneer of scientific research on EHF satellite propagation. Since 2013 a large number of satellite communication scientific experiments have been conducted by University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Principal Investigator for ASI. Due to the excellent scientific results and the high reliability of the system, the experimental campaign is still on-going. The main objective of the telecommunication experiments is to demonstrate the feasibility of broadband satellite communications in Q/V band, optimizing and assessing, over-the-air, the performance of the indispensable adaptive transmission techniques. Moreover, the application of innovative paradigms related to system “softwarization”, as SDN and NFV, has been analysed in the framework of satellite systems exploiting “beyond Ka-band” frequencies. The goal that drives this experimental activity is to provide to the academic community, manufacturers and service providers useful tools to understand how to exploit Q/V band for future satellite communication systems. In this paper the main results of the last ten years of experiments are presented, as well as the plans for future scientific activities.