Performance of Multibeam Satellite Systems with Tomlinson-Harashima Precoding

Abstract

A multibeam satellite system can be modelled as a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system with an interbeam interference matrix that is derived from the positions of the users in the different beams. This way it is possible to apply precoding techniques, such as Tomlinson-Harashima precoding (THP), to mitigate the interference. This paper presents an analytical framework to model the interference by a simple and effective parameter, which enables to assess the uncoded bit error rate (BER) of THP in such a scenario, and to derive useful hints on the optimization of the overall system capacity.