SALSA - A novel Spectrum Analyzer board for LEO Satellite Allocations based on SDR technology

摘要

RELIABLE radio communication is a highly critical element for the success of a space mission. Especially the increase of small satellite deployments in recent years is posing new challenges to international frequency coordination and interference-free satellite communication.Frequency assignments are becoming progressively difficult as the spectrum is already heavily used with more users to come.While the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) already pursues the timely and efficient coordination from a regulatory point of view, the general practice often deviates from the notified use. Additionally, the influence of terrestrial interferences to satellite communication still contains uncertainties and cannot be analyzed by terrestrial spectrum analysis systems. Therefore, the project SALSA (Spectrum Analysis of LEO Satellite Allocations) at the Technische Universitaet Berlin developed and qualified a small satellite payload to analyze spectrum use primarily in the VHF, UHF and S band. The SALSA payload is designed to provide global spectrum data at a minimum effort by using a satellite based and fully customizable RF system in CubeSat form factor. The SALSA experiment will generate up-to-date measurements of the utilized spectrum in a variety of frequency bands and help enable interference-free satellite communication. The scientific results arc also planned to be utilized for ITU studies.