High-Speed Transmission for Ka-Band Aeronautical Satellite Communications Using WINDS

Abstract

Satellite communications are vital in the event of disaster, and fulfill supplementary communications needs, especially in aeronautical applications. The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) conducts research on Ka-band satellite communications using the Wideband InterNetworking engineering test and Demonstration Satellite (WINDS). NICT has also developed an aeronautical earth station, which we flight tested in WINDS's Chubu beam. We measured the propagation characteristics of multi-beam antenna mounted on WINDS to measure the variation of Doppler shift for Ka-band airplane-satellite communication. We also measured the tracking performance of the earth station antenna. In practical tests, NICT's aeronautical earth station demonstrated uplink speeds up to 38 Mbps.