Cognitive Radio for Ka Band Satellite Communications

The satellite communication data traffic is increasing dramatically over the coming years. High throughput multibeam satellite networks in Ka band are potentially able to accommodate the upcoming high data rate demands. However, there is only 500 MHz of exclusive band for download and the same amount for upload. This spectrum shortage impose a barrier in order to satisfy the increasing demands. Cognitive satellite communication in Ka band is considered in this paper in order to potentially provide an additional 4.4 GHz bandwidth for downlink and uplink fixed-satellite-services. In this way, it is expected that the problem of spectrum scarcity for future generation of satellite networks is alleviated to a great extent. The underlying scenarios and enabling techniques are discussed in detail, and finally we investigate the implementation issues related to the considered techniques.