CCSDS 131.2-B-1 Transmitter Design on FPGA with Adaptive Coding and Modulation Schemes for Satellite Communications

Abstract

Satellite communications are a well-established research area in which the main innovation of last decade has been the use of multi-carrier modulations and more robust channel coding techniques. However, in recent years, novel advanced signal processing has started being developed for these communications due to the increase in the signal processing capacity of transmitters and receivers. Although signal processing capabilities are increasing, they are still constrained by large limitations because these techniques need to be implemented in real hardware, thus making complexity a matter of critical importance. Therefore, this paper presents the design and implementation of a transmitter with adaptable coding and modulation on a field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA). The main motivation came from the standard CCSDS 131.2-B-1 which recommends that such a novel transmitter which has to date not been implemented in a real system The system was modeled by MATLAB with the purpose of being programmed in VHDL following the AXI-stream protocol between components. Behavioral simulation results were obtained in VIVADO and compared with MATLAB for verification purposes. The transmitter logical circuit was synthesized in a FPGA Zynq Ultrascale RFSoC ZU28DR, showing low resource consumption and correct functioning, leading us to conclude that the deployment of new communication systems in state-of-the-art hardware in satellite communications is justified.