Suitable combination of modulation and FEC schemes for satellite digital video communication networks

This paper proposes a suitable combination of the digital modulation schemes and the coding-rate of forward error correction (FEC) schemes for satellite digital video communication networks. The comparative study is carried out by computer simulation considering non-linearly amplified, narrow bandwidth satellite channels with adjacent channel interference signals. The proposed system employs an offset QPSK modulation scheme supported by the coding-rate of 7/8 convolutional encoding and Viterbi decoding to realize high-quality and compact spectrum characteristics in non-linear channels. By employing a 32 Mbps DPCM video codec, the developed prototype system achieves a post demodulated S/N ratio of higher than 52 dB. Moreover, it achieves high protection ratio against co-channel interference than conventional analog FM systems. The optimized digital video transmission system makes it possible to transmit high-quality NTSC video signals over non-linearly amplified narrow bandwidth satellite channels, for example 27 MHz or 36 MHz bandwidth transponders, with high-security digital encryption.