Spectrum Signal Processing announced Thursday that, together with MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, the first over-the-air demonstration for the Advanced Satcom Terminal Technology Demonstration Program (AST TDP) was successfully completed.
Spectrum is teamed with MDA, who is the prime contractor for the AST TDP, delivering the work for, and in collaboration with, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) Ottawa. Spectrum provided the SDR-3000, a Software Communications Architecture (SCA)-enabled software defined radio platform for the terminal, as well as engineering services in support of this effort.
MDA, as prime contractor, has been responsible for the system architecture, demonstrations and the development of the SCA-enabled waveforms. QinetiQ also supported the team through preliminary design activities and supporting development.
The AST TDP performed an over-the-air demonstration of a 512 kbps waveform based upon the Intelsat Business Standard. The demonstration took place over a C-band Telesat transponder. Subsequent laboratory demonstrations were able to show data rates in excess of 8 Mbps.
The MDA, Spectrum & QinetiQ team has developed an effective approach for rapid and reliable development of communications waveforms that enables deployment on SCA-enabled systems as well as commercial boards. The receiver performance has been shown to be very close to the theoretical maximum.
Future plans include demonstrations of data rates of 2 Mbps and higher, as well as advanced protocols, reliability and robustness capabilities. Spectrum will be exhibiting on November 14-18, 2005 at the upcoming SDR Forum Technical Conference and Product Exposition, in Orange County, CA.
MDA team members will show the Advanced Satcom Terminal demonstration in the Spectrum booth. MDA will also present a system overview along with detailed demonstration results at the conference.
