Exploitation of the W-band for High Capacity Satellite Communications

The scientific mission DAVID (Data and Video Interactive Distribution) of the Italian Space Agency will pioneer the use of the W-band for a challenging telecommunications experiment. The unavailability of channel measurements and the technological limitations in that frequency range imply a system assessment based on channel extrapolation and a wise error control strategy. In that frame, the paper proposes a system approach that will allow the exploitation of the W-band for high capacity satellite communications. The results obtained through that approach in the assessment of the DAVID 94.5 GHz experiment are provided and their perspectives identified and commented.