Most satellite operators, view interference as their biggest operations issue. Resolving these issues can take from hours to days despite the demand for time to resolution being closer to seconds to minutes.  In a satellite network composed of hundreds of satellites and 10s to 100s of thousands of remote terminals, all either moving or with the potential to move, the interference problem is significantly increased while the demand for time to resolution is driven ever smaller.

A key difference in LEO/MEO constellations is the movement of the satellites and the related hand-off for ground based terminals.  With the advent of low cost high performance computing it is now possible to embed technologies from the more exotic interference mitigation systems deployed across the world – into the end-point remotes themselves.  This enables a range of benefits to be realized at the satellite operator, network operator and remote user levels:

• Embedded Spectral Awareness – signal processing tools that provide spectral analysis and time domain analysis identifying the nature of interference in the channel, yielding quality of service measurement and perhaps direct guidance to the stakeholders on how to resolve at point of problem.
• Embedded Interference Mitigation – signal processing tools that identify, and blindly cancel interferers of various types, e.g. multiple CW/Sweeping CW interferers simultaneously from a protected carrier (bad equipment and intentional interference sources), high power blocking carriers (adjacent satellite interference), low power carriers (bandwidth compromising cross-polar or adjacent satellite interferers), direct radar illumination (CIWS in conflict regions around the globe), yielding immediate removal of interference, allowing time to trace root cause while avoiding revenue or service loss.

One possible benefit of blind cancellation is to increase the density of frequency re-use and thus the overall capacity of the system.

This Tech Track paper will examine approaches to reducing interference time to issue resolution