Software Defined Communication system "Reconfigurable Communication Equipment"(System Engineering-II)

本論文で述べる再構成通信機は,再構成可能なデジタルデバイスによって構成される一種のソフトウェア無線機であり,軌道上に配備後も回路構成を変更することにより,新たな通信機能を付加することが可能である.このような軌道上再構成を応用することにより,災害時に発生する特異なトラフィック分布に対して,平時に使用している中継器を再構成することにより,最適な中継器を構成することも可能となる.本報告では、基本的な設計概念と、エンジニアリングフライトモデルの開発結果を述べる。

The expectations to space infrastructure are grown from the safety consciousness. The space infrastructure has no influence from terrestrial disasters. Precious remote sensing technology with advanced signal processing, ultra broad band down link system for a large amount of sensing data transmission and broad band satellite back-bone network for emergency communications are most prospective systems. Then requirements for advanced on-board processing are getting higher and such technology for realizing those systems must be developed. From a view of satellite communications point, the life time of general satellite communications system has 10 to 15 years and the system design is constrained by the designed technology paradigm far before the launching time. Therefore, capability of system re-designing, or "reconfigurablility" is the most important asset for advanced onboard signal processing. In this paper, we report the result of development of reconfigurable onboard equipment called "Reconfigurable Communication Equipment (RCE)." The RCE is a type of transponder system with Reconfigurable Field Programmable Gate Arrays those function is defined by a binary data that called configuration data. The design concept and advantages and disadvantages that were introduced by onboard reconfigurable devices are discussed.