Coding/modulation trade-offs for Shuttle wideband data links

This paper describes various modulation and coding schemes which are potentially applicable to the Shuttle wideband data relay communications link. This link will be capable of accommodating up to 50 Mbps of scientific data and will be subject to a power constraint which forces the use of channel coding. Although convolutionally encoded coherent binary PSK is the tentative signal design choice for the wideband data relay link, FM techniques are of interest because of the associated hardware simplicity and because an FM system is already planned to be available for transmission of television via relay satellite to the ground. Binary and M-ary FSK are considered as candidate modulation techniques, and both coherent and noncoherent ground station detection schemes are examined. The potential use of convolutional coding is considered in conjunction with each of the candidate modulation techniques.