Improving satellite transmissions by adopting the ‘beam hopping’ technique is a key focus for SatixFy at IBC.
Beam hopping, in which a transmission channel switches between several beams, provides the ability to allocate capacity temporarily according to demand. It does this by changing the traditional forward link transmission from continuous to time-based burst.
Working this way, the traditional colour separation of frequency and polarisation is replaced by time division multiplexing over a single frequency carrier.
Use cases include the ability to redirect excess capacity to different customers during low demand times and dynamic capacity allocation during large events to maintain transmission quality.
To capitalise on beam hopping, SatixFy has developed the SX-3000, a software-defined radio ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) that supports DVB-S2X and features Annex E Super Frame transmission and reception. The SX-3000 is on show at IBC. A VSAT based on the SX-3000 is capable of receiving a 500Msps beam hopping transmission, according to the company said.
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