Noncoherent Combining of Small Satellites Signals – Proof of Concept

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) networks connect billions of devices in endless daily applications. However, the IoT networks lack coverage in less populated areas such as oceans, deserts, forests, and rural, isolated regions. Therefore, future generations of communications must get satellites involved for ubiquitous coverage of IoT networks. The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are the closest to the earth and hence the best option to get engaged; nevertheless, they are often small satellites with limited resources. Consequently, such satellites create a challenging task at related Ground Stations (GSs) to receive, process, and decode their weak signals. This article presents a receive diversity combining technique as a solution for simple and cheap GS to improve the reception quality of small satellites' weak signals. To validate the suggested technique, the current study combined real small satellite signals from multiple GSs registered at the open-source Satellite Networked Open Ground Station (SatNOGS) global network. The results showed that combining multiple replicas of the satellite signals can significantly improve the link quality.