Methods and Apparatuses for Diversity Transmission in a Satellite-Based Communication System

A method of operation by a ground segment of a satellite communication system comprising the ground segment and a space segment, the method comprising:

• receiving incoming user data streams at one or more processing nodes of the ground segment, each incoming user data stream targeting a respective user terminal served by the satellite communication system;
• and
• employing forward spatial diversity transmission for one or more of the incoming user data streams by, for each such incoming user data stream:
• forming a corresponding set of two or more forward user data sub-streams by block encoding the incoming user data stream and dividing each encoded data block into different subsets of encoded data;
• and
• mapping each forward user data sub-stream to a respective one among two or more forward beam signals respectively corresponding to two or more forward user beams of the satellite communication system that have respective forward user beam coverage areas encompassing a location of the user terminal targeted by the incoming user data stream;
• and
• sending each forward beam signal to a different ground station among a plurality of geographically distributed ground stations that each transmit to the space segment using a respective optical forward uplink signal.

A satellite communication system comprising a ground segment, the ground segment comprising:

• interface circuitry configured to receive incoming user data streams, each incoming user data stream targeting a respective user terminal served by the satellite communication system;
• and
• processing circuitry that is configured to employ forward spatial diversity transmission for one or more of the incoming user data streams based on being configured to, for each such incoming user data stream:
• form a corresponding set of two or more forward user data sub-streams by block encoding the incoming user data stream and dividing each encoded data block into different subsets of encoded data;
• and
• map each forward user data sub-stream to a respective one among two or more forward beam signals respectively corresponding to two or more forward user beams of the satellite communication system that have respective forward user beam coverage areas encompassing a location of the user terminal targeted by the incoming user data stream;
• and
• send each forward beam signal to a different ground station among a plurality of geographically distributed ground stations, with each ground station configured to transmit to a space segment of the satellite communications system using a respective optical forward uplink signal.