H.Garon1,V.Sank1,D.Fisher1,K.Dearth1,J.GalEdd1,A.

Ames2
1
NASAGoddardSpaceFlightCenter,Greenbelt,MD20771
2
OrbitalSciences,Gilbert,AZ
18April2010

ReportonFlightApplication

SuccessfulUseofaHighRateLDPCCodewithHighDataRateina
RestrictedBand
Summary:
TheNASAversionoftheLDPC7/8ratecode,shortenedtothedimensionsof(8160,7136),hasbeen
implementedastheforwarderrorcorrection(FEC)schemafortheLandsatDataContinuityMission
(LDCM).Thisisthefirstflightapplicationofthiscode.Inordertoplacea440Mspslinkwithinthe375
MHzwideXbandwefounditnecessarytoheavilybandpassfilterthesatellitetransmitteroutput.
Despitethesignificantamplitudeandphasedistortionsthataccompaniedthespectraltruncation,the
missionrequiredBERismaintainedat<1012withlessthan2dBofimplementationloss.Weutilizeda
bandpassfilterdesignedostensiblytoreplicatethelinkdistortionstodemonstratelinkdesignviability.
Thesamefilterwasthenusedtooptimizetheadaptiveequalizerinthereceiveremployedatthe
terminusofthedownlink.Theexcellentresultsweobtainedcouldbedirectlyattributedtothe
implementationoftheLDPCcodeandtheamplitudeandphasecompensationprovidedinthereceiver.
Similarresultswereobtainedwithreceiversfromseveralvendors.
Background:
Newnearearthmissionsarecontinuallypushingforhigherdatathroughput.Sensorsplannedfor
installationaboarddemandeverincreasingassociateddatarates.Groundstationinfrastructureshave
inturnseenthebenefitofimprovedefficienciesinthehandlinganddistributionofmissiondatasuch
thattheircapacitieshaveimproveddramaticallyaswell.Incontrast,theXbandspectrumallocatedto
nearearthmissions(8025to8400MHz)isconstrained.Inkeepingwiththeoutputcapabilitiesofits
intendedsensorsaboard,LDCMearthobservationsciencedatarequiredadownlinkinformationrateof
384Mbps.Thisinformationrate,limitedcontacttime,largefilesizescombinedwithfilecompression
servedtostipulatethatinordertosurvivelogisticallythemissionmustachieveabiterrorrate(BER)
lessthan1012.Anadditionalcomplicationwasthephysicalconstraintassociatedwiththepresenceof
theDeepSpaceNetwork(DSN)at8400MHz.TherequirementhereforbothLDCMandDSNtoco
survivewassimplythatthatthepowerspectralfluxdensity(PSFD)attheDSNantennanotexceed225
dBm/(Hzm2)fromanypotentiallyinterferingsource.Inordertomeettheserestrictionsandstillsatisfy
thebasicpowerrequirementsformaintainingalink,theLDCMspacecraftRFemissionsmustthenbe
severelyfiltered.ThemaximumbandwidththatLDCMcouldoccupywas375MHz,asymmetricalabout
anassignedcarrierfrequencyof8200MHz.However,filteringnotonlytruncatesthetransmission
spectrumitalsoimpressessignificantamplitudeandphasedistortiononthelink.Thechoiceofahigh
ratecodewasobvious.Whatwasnotsoobviousseveralyearsagowastheparticularchoiceforahigh
ratecode.ThesubclassofEuclideangeometryLDPCcodeswasjustbeingpromulgatedbyNASAas
potentiallyusefulforawiderangeofspacecommunicationapplications[14],severalyearsbehindits
competitorsofseriallyconcatenatedconvolutionalturbocodesandDVBS2.DVBS2

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Figure1.LDCMEndToEndSoftwareSimulation.

Figure2.BlockdiagramofNASA/GSFCLDCMtestbench.

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concatenatedanLDPCcodewithanouterBCHcodeintendedtoremedypoorlowerrorrate
performance.
TheprimaryreasonbehindtheLDCMselectionofLDPC7/8wasbaseduponacombinationofthehigh
dataraterequirementalongwithalackof(known)errorfloorandavailabilityofflightencodersand
grounddecoders.Still,a7/8ratecodewitha384Mbpsinformationrateleadstoasymbolrateof440
Msps.AgoodportionoftheresultingoffsetQPSK(OQPSK)modulationspectrumwhichcouldhave
beentransmittedisinsteadsuppressedbythespacecraft375MHzbandpassfilterinordertosatisfythe
DSNspectrallevelrequirement.Theremainingcentralcauseforconcerninestablishinglinkviabilityis
thendirectedatassessingtheimpactofthistruncatedspectrumalongwiththerelatedandsubstantial
distortionsonthelinkinbothmagnitudeandphase.
LinkSimulation:
Tomitigatetherisksthatweunderstoodandtobetter
anticipatethoserisksstillunknowntous,wesimulatedthe
entirelink,endtoend,inbothsoftwareandhardware.
Figure1showsthehighlevelblockdiagramcomponents
constructedinsoftwareusingMathworksSimulinktm.While
theblockdiagramshowninfigure2illustratestheoverall
functionalbreakdownofthehardwarecomponents.Thekey
tothehardwaresimulationisanXbandbandpassfilter
Figure3a.Up/Dnconverterdepictedinthe
(figures3aand3b),specificallydesignedtoreplicatethe
blockdiagramoffigure2b.ThereplicaS/C
filterisatthefarrighthandside.
spectrumtruncationanddistortionproducedalongthe
analogportionoftheRFlinkaboardthespacecraft(S/C).InthecaseofLDCMthefilterembodiesthe
combinedimpactonthelinkoftheXbandtransmitter,a
travelingwavetubeamplifier(TWTA),theDSNbandpass
filterandearthcoverageantenna.Referringtofigure2,in
applyingtheS/Creplicafilteratestmodulatorfirstgenerates
a440MspsPN23datastream,LDPC7/8encoded,at1.2GHz.
The1.2GHzoutputofthetestmodulatorisupconvertedto
8.2005GHzandthenappliedtotheS/Creplicadistortion
filter.Theoutputofthereplicafilterisdownconvertedback
toa1.2GHzIFwherebroadbandnoiserepresentativeofthe
channelisinjected.Theconsolidatedsignalwithnoiseis
finallypresentedtotheinputofareceiver.Thetestbench
wasintentionallydesignedtoallowtheIFfrequenciesat
Figure3b.CharacterizationoftheS/C
bothinputandoutputoftheup/downconvertertobe
replicafilter.
independentlyvaried.Thelocaloscillatorsoftheup/down
convertercanbeadjustedsothatanycombinationoftestmodulatororgroundreceivercanbe
employedintest.Thelinkspectrumattheinputtothereceiverinsimulation,priortonoiseinjection,is
displayedinfigure5.Towithintheuncertaintiesofboththehardwareandsoftwaresimulations,the
spectrumaspresentedtothereceiverappearsidenticalinbothsoftwareandhardware.
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ResultsoftheSoftwareSimulationandHardwareEmulation:
Usingthehardwaretestbenchasdescribedabove,weare
abletodemonstrate(figure6)thata7/8rateLDPCencoded,
440Mspsdatastreamcanbefilteredwithabandpassofonly
375MHzandstillbedecodedwithaBERoflessthan1012.
Moreover,ascanbeseenfromourresults,thishasbeen
accomplishedwithminimalimplementationloss,about1dB
forthereceivershownhere,and<1.8dBforotherreceivers
tested.Theseobservationsindicatethelinkwillfunction
properlyaspresentlydesignedandwillmeettheLDCM
requirements.Asasidenote,thesoftwaresimulationtended
tobemuchmorepessimisticthanthehardwaretestbench.
Figure5.EmulatedLDCMoutputspectrum, as
However,boththehardwareandsoftwareproperly
seenbyreceiver,priortonoiseinjection.
emphasizedthatthesuccessofthemissionwillrelycritically
upontheperformanceofthesignalequalizerintheground
receiver.Bothsoftwareandhardwarehavealsoindicateda
particularsensitivitytotheproperconstructionofthe1st
stageequalizerfilter,referredtobysomereceiver
manufacturersasthereceiversmatchedfilter.Thisfilteris
separateanddistinctfromthefrontendfilter.Thefrontend
analogfilterservesasanantialiasingfilterfordigital
receivers.The1ststageequalizerfilterissynthesizedtotallyin
softwareandoccursaftertheconversionoftheincoming
signalfromanalogtodigital.Whendualequalizersareused,
theymaynotbothbeadaptive.Atleastforone
manufacturersreceiverwehavedevelopedaprocedureto
derivethecoefficientsofthematchedfilterbydirectlyusing
thereceivedinputsignal.Ratherthanhavingtoanticipateany
changeinthecommunicationlinkduetospacecraft
componentaging(or,forthatmatter,anyreason),wesimply
recalibratebyregeneratingthecoefficientsofthematched
filter,thenkeepingthemfixed.

Equalization:
Thespacecraftfilterisdesignedtotruncatethebandwidthof
themodulatedspectrumpriortotransmissionsoasnotto
Figure6.Measuredresults:Minimal
violatetheLDCMspectrumallocationadjacenttotheDSN
implementationlossbetweenreplicafilterand
band.Asdiscussedabove,anundesiredeffectofthefilteris
ideal,redandbluerespectively.
thatitintroducessignificantamplitudeandphasedistortion
inthedatastream.TheLDCMEndToEndsoftwaresimulationmodelpredictedthatenoughphase
distortionwouldbeintroducedsoastomakethecommunicationlinkuntenableunlessthereceiver
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equalizationcouldcompensateproperly.Allprogrammablehighdatarate(HDR)receiversusesome
formofequalizationafterconversionoftheanaloginputsignaltodigitalformat.Thegoalofthe
equalizationistoproperlyrestorethespreadofbitenergy,theintersymbolinterference(ISI),causeby
hardwaredistortions.Somereceiverscapableofcorrectingsignificantandsubstantialmagnitudeand
phasedistortiononalinkemploytwostagesofequalization.The1ststageequalizationequatestoa
matcheddigitalreceivefilterembeddedwithinaCostasloopofthedemodulatorandbitsynch.The2nd
stageAdaptiveBaseBandEqualizer(ABBE)whichfollowsisgenerallydoubleblindandessentially
completesamopupactionoftheoutputofthe1ststage.Thelevelofintegrationoftheseequalizers
withthedemodulatorissogreatthatitisdifficulttodistinguishwherethedemodulatorleavesoffand
theequalizersbegin,especiallysinceeachinteractsandimpactsthedemodulatorsodramatically.
Theseinitialcoefficientsofboththe1ststageequalizerfilterandtheABBEcanbesetbytheuserand
storedasdefault.Together,bothofthesealgorithmscancompensateforlargeswingsinamplitudeand
phaseassumingthattheseoccurwithinsomeconsistencyand,atnottoohigharate.Thereceivercan
automaticallyandcontinuouslyupdatetheadaptiveequalizationstagecoefficientstomaximize
performance.

Conclusion:
CoupledwithacommercialgroundtelemetryreceiverdesignedtodotheLDPCdecodingandto
overcomethelinkdistortions,wehaveabletodemonstratethatwecanmaintainaviable440Mspslink
atBERlessthan1012withanimplementationlossoflessthan2dB,despiteanasymmetricaltruncation
toa375MHzbandwidth.TheBERandthegroundimplementationlossarebothextremelylow,inturn,
maximizingtheusefulsatellitecontacttime.Duetotheavailabilityofflightencoderchipsqualifiedto
Level1(GEOenvironment)andtheavailabilityofcommercialreceiverwithdecoders,ithasturnedout
tobefortuitousthatLDCMchosetheLDPC7/8ratecodecfortheirnearearthapplication.Withthe
continualpushforevenhigherdatarateswithinanincreasinglymorecrowdedspectrawemay
anticipatetheelectionofLDPC7/8asthecodecofchoiceformanymorehighdataratenearearth
missionsinthefuture.

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References:
[1]R.G.Gallager,Lowdensityparitycheckcodes,IRETrans.Inform.Theory,vol.IT8,pp.2128,Jan.
1962.
[2]Y.Kou,S.LinandM.Fossorier,Lowdensityparitycheckcodesbasedonfinitegeometries:a
rediscoveryandnewresults,IEEETrans.InformationTheory,vol.47,pp.27112736,Nov.2001.
[3]W.Fong,WhitePaperforLowDensityParityCheck(LDPC)CodesforCCSDSChannelCodingBlue
Book,CCSDSPanel1BMeetingPaper,Sept.2002.
[4]G.P.CalzolariandE.Vassalo,CombinedAdvancedCoding&ModulationforFutureCCSDSHighRate
Missions,SpaceOps2006,1923June,Rome,taly.

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