Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS
Despite the growing spread of terrestrial and wireless alternatives, satellite connections are still a must for regions with no or insufficient internet access. Satellites play a major role in tackling structural challenges such as broadband coverage of islands or cruise ships. They are also indispensable in security-relevant areas, e.g. to provide secure communication channels for embassies or the military, and as an alternative infrastructure should a natural disaster damage or disable the terrestrial network. Satellite communication is also one of the most efficient and profitable means of transmission for the simultaneous distribution of content to a high number of different, widely distributed receivers.
As data volumes increase, so too does the share of and demand for high throughput satellite systems (HTS systems). In particular, newly emerging satellite megaconstellations in low earth orbit (LEO) provide enormous amounts of data capacity around the world, ranging from gigabytes to terabytes per second. However, simply upscaling current transmission solutions is not enough to meet the increased requirements for flexibility, efficiency and throughput. Instead, systems must be completely rethought.