PERFORMANCE OF COFDM FOR SATELLITE DIGITAL AUDIO BROADCASTING

This paper analyses the performance of a coded orthogonal frequency di vision multiplexing (COFDM) based system for digital audio broadcastin g using a highly inclined orbit satellite constellation. The sources o f performance degradation considered are non-linear amplification in t he satellite transponder and multipath propagation for mobile receptio n. Despite its strong peak-to-mean amplitude variation, COFDM has been found to be very robust against non-linear amplification. In the mult ipath channel, practical cases demonstrate low performance losses even in highly populated areas when highly inclined elliptical orbits (HEO ) are used.