The Ground Segment Receiver is a hardware unit able to lock onto a Serially Concatenated Convolutional Codes (SCCC) signal compliant with the CCSDS 131.2-B standard. The unit consists of three main parts: an internal test modulator, a Control PC and the SCCC Receiver. The Ground Segment Receiver is designed with a scalar approach and it is available in four different versions in terms of number of channels and maximum data rate supported:
- Cost-optimized single channel with maximum data rate of 600 MBaud;
- Cost-optimized dual channel with maximum data rate of 600 MBaud for each channel;
- High-speed single channel with maximum data rate of 1200 MBaud;
- High-speed dual channel with maximum data rate of 1200 MBaud for each channel, with cross-polarization interference cancellation.
The internal test modulator, available as option, embeds functionality of encoding and modulation compliant with the CCSDS 131.2-B standard, and channel emulator for Additive White Guassian Noise (AWGN) and Doppler effect, and it supports a maximum data rate of 1200 MBaud for each input channel.
The Control PC handles configuration and communication with the external host PC: the Ground Segment Receiver can be remotely configured, controlled and monitored with a GUI or with dedicated API through Ethernet interface. Moreover, the Control PC handles local data storage and high-speed communications through additional dedicated Ethernet interfaces.
The SCCC Receiver unit is a high-performance receiver compliant with the CCSDS 131.2-B standard and capable of receiving intermediate frequency analog signals with a symbol rate up to 1200Mbaud.
The Ground Segment Receiver has been developed within the framework of an ESA project.