This paper proposes new transmission schemes for the delivery of satellite services. In the proposed scenarios, mobile terminals are allowed to forward the signal received from the satellite. This scheme provides spatial diversity just like MIMO transmission schemes. Moreover, the coverage area is extended because masked terminals have an additional opportunity to get the service from neighboring terminals. We use the paradigm of cooperative communications to compare the advantages and limitations of several scenarios in hybrid terrestrial/satellite systems. In particular, we study the following basic transmission scheme: in a first time slot, the satellite sends its signal and, in a second time slot, mobile terrestrial terminals are relaying the satellite signal. An analysis framework is proposed and applied to this cooperation scenario at the destination terminal. The framework is modeling the cooperation process and clearly separates the control part from the data user part. The paper outlines the importance of the control part by evaluating the relay selection policy on a basic hybrid satellite/ad hoc system. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

NPR (noise power ratio) and EVM (error vector magnitude) measurements are used to characterize linear or nonlinear distortions and degradations in digital modulators, microwave or RF amplifiers and transmission links. These methods are also used in system simulations. Each of these methods results in an equivalent noise power that can be added to the thermal noise in the link budget in order to compute the BER (bit error rate). In this paper we examine the conditions necessary for these two measurements (or simulations) to give the same value for this equivalent noise. From this identity, it is possible to use either one or the other method with the goal to simplify simulation software or test benches particularly in the case of wide bandwidth measurements.

The world of telecommunications converging towards IP, the telecommunication satellite systems have to follow the trend to stay competitive and to be integrated to the Internet world. We first remind the issues of convergence in satellite communications, then we list the different convergence architectures conceivable in satellite systems and describe the limits of current systems in term of IP convergence. Our choice is devoted to the IP/GSE architecture for the forward link. Then, we specify the GSE-Alt protocol, inspired from GSE but adapted to the return link. The deployment of new services and the evolution of existing services are possible and made easier thanks to the IP layer. Both layers GSE and GSE-Alt optimize the transport of the IP packets. In order to propose a communication support allowing various quality of service (QoS) needs, we specify several mechanisms allowing a great coherence of the quality of service treatments at the different protocol levels. Finally, to allow an interconnection and an integration of the satellite world to the Internet world, we study the requirements in term of IP routing deployment. Therefore, we specify an architecture allowing the satellite to make the switching at the IP level. This convergence of the satellite towards an "all IP" system is the base required to its transparent insertion to the rest of the telecommunication world.

Le système d’identification automatique (AIS) est un système permettant aux navires de s’échanger certaines informations, dont leur position, par radio. L’objectif du travail réalisé est de permettre la réception des messages AIS par un satellite en orbite basse sans modifier le matériel existant équipant les navires. Il sera ainsi possible de connaître la position de tous les navires à travers le monde. Plusieurs services sont possibles, comme le contrôle maritime ou, pour les armateurs, la connaissance permanente de la position de leurs bateaux. Ce séminaire présentera le correcteur d’erreurs élaboré afin de s’affranchir du niveau élevé de bruit et les méthodes permettant de prendre en compte les propriétés des signaux AIS.

Communication satellites emerge as an attractive solution in providing broadband connectivity to a variety of users thanks to its inherent global coverage. The broadcast nature of satellites (with higher frequency bands Ku/Ka) makes them the natural choice for multicasting services, for interconnecting geographically high-speed networks, and for providing multimedia services. However, this higher frequency band imposes challenging channel conditions. To avoid such problem, upcoming broadband satellite networks have adopted the adaptive coding and modulation at the physical layer. This is the main driver of this thesis due to the crucial fact that such adaptivity makes traditional satellite system design totally inefficient. In this thesis, we focus on a different paradigm to address such new challenges, based on a joint optimization across layers of the protocol stack. The fundamental idea behind this concept is the fact that adaptivity at the physical layer should be followed at upper layers in order to achieve efficient management of the system resources, and in order to comply with the stringent QoS of new applications services. We cover several aspects related to the networking optimization; allocating resources efficiently, maximizing the throughput and assuring fairness among all the users, according to channel condition. Our efforts have been also focused on choosing the best methodology in terms of selecting; efficient mathematical tools, most suitable architecture, novel adaptive technologies at higher layers, the best approach to the cross-layer design, and truly available standardized tools.

Increasing the coherent integration for acquisition of weak GNSS signals in urban and indoor environments is limited by several challenges. Besides of the possible sign reversal of the navigation data bit every 20ms, Doppler shift increases with the integration time. Inaccurate estimate of this offset may severely reduce the correlation power and prevent the receiver from detecting the presence of low-power signals. Standard acquisition approaches are not efficient for performing long coherent integrations. Furthermore, they achieve their limitations in high dynamics, where the signal frequency cannot be considered constant over the entire period of observation. In this paper, Frequency Offset Correction (FOC) loops are explored to compensate for the Doppler shift during the correlation process, thus enhancing stand-alone receivers’ sensitivity. The estimated frequency offset during the previous coherent integrations is used in a feedback scheme for self-aiding to extend the coherent integration time. We propose a new FOC loop architecture for compensating the frequency of each sample of the input signal. State of the art frequency compensation methods correct for the frequency drift on the post-correlation output for fine acquisition. At this stage, the correlation loss is already large enough to prevent the gain from accumulating longer signal.

Coastal altimetric waveforms may be corrupted by peaks. A simple parametric model was recently introduced to model peaky altimetric waveforms. This model assumes that the received altimetric waveform is the sum of a Brown echo and a Gaussian peak. This model has provided interesting results for symmetric peaks affecting altimetric signals. However, it is not appropriate for altimetric signals corrupted by asymmetric peaks. This paper introduces a Brown with asymmetric Gaussian peak model for altimetric waveforms. The parameters of this model are estimated by a maximum likelihood estimator. The performance of the proposed model and the resulting estimation strategy are evaluated via simulations conducted on synthetic and real data.

The delineation of P and T waves is important for the medical interpretation of ECG signals. We propose a Bayesian algorithm for simultaneous detection, delineation, and estimation of P and T waves. A block Gibbs sampler exploits the strong local dependencies in ECG signals by imposing block constraints on the P and T wave locations. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on the annotated QT database and compared with two classical algorithms.

In this paper, SAR processing algorithms for automotive applications are presented and illustrated on data from non-trivial test scenes. The chosen application is parking lot detection. Laboratory results obtained with a teaching sonar experiment emphasize the resolution improvement introduced with range-Doppler SAR processing. A similar improvement is then confirmed through full scale measurements performed with an automotive radar prototype operating at 77GHz in very close range conditions, typical of parking lot detection. The collected data allows a performance comparison between different SAR processing algorithms for realistic targets.