Theoretical analysis and implementation of effective receivers for telecommand space links

This paper deals with the feasibility of the new receiver scheme for telecommand space links, based on the adoption of short low-density parity-check codes recently introduced in the standard. Being able to reduce significantly the required signal-To-noise ratio, these codes have an impact on the acquisition, tracking and synchronization issues. All these aspects have been faced, both theoretically and practically through the realization of a breadboard that implements the core elements of the on-board receiver, and is able to demodulate and decode uplink signals employing the new codes. The breadboard incorporates innovative solutions to cope with the acquisition and synchronization problems, and a pioneering implementation of non-iterative decoders based on the most reliable basis algorithm.