Superior Iterative Detection for Co-Channel Interference in Multibeam Satellite Systems

Aggressive frequency reuse alleviates the frequency-spectrum shortage in multibeam satellite systems targeting multi-Terabits-per-second throughput but creates harsh co-channel interference (CCI) environment. For forward-link, state-of-the-art receivers at user terminals assume memoryless CCI to avoid exponential increase in complexity. However, memory effects of CCI are inevitable, arising when co-channel signals combine asynchronously. First, we provide analytical characterization of CCI accounting for memory, a formulation that captures synchronization impairments. Then, low-complexity receivers, capable of realizing full frequency reuse, are developed to compensate for spatial and temporal CCI profiles, with computational complexity increasing linearly in the memory span. This is achieved by our novel soft-in soft-out, iterative divide-and-conquer (IDAC) paradigm, decomposing interference into smaller sets depending on intensity. A set is created from weak interferers which are not decoded but considered as thermal noise. The interferers which are decoded are further split into a set that subtracts strong ones and another set addressing intense interferers in optimal-Bayesian fashion. Extensive numerical studies reveal that IDAC architecture offers lossless compensation of dominant CCI with memory for beam-edge terminals, when rate coordination is guided by network information theory. Further, its performance is superior compared with approaches using iterative subtractive cancellation, commonly employed for return-link, random-access satellite applications.