20,000-Circuit TDMA Switch
Digital signal processing (DSP) offers solutions to many situations. The inherent flexibility of DSP processors allows satellites to adapt to changing business plans and further allows them to be reconfigured as on-orbit backups. DSP can overcome the uncertainties that accompany opportunities in broadband, new applications, Internet, and two-way direct-to-home services. By adjusting to new formats, a digital satellite never becomes prematurely obsolete. To illustrate, let's look at two possible situations at two fictitious companies:
Example A: Acme Space Systems has two satellites, one digital and one analog. The analog satellite experiences a loss in transponder capacity, with major service failures imminent.
Solution: Acme commands the phased array of its digital satellite to cover
failing service areas with new beams and, with its digital channelizer, allocates precisely the required spare capacity. Customer satisfaction, services, and revenue continue uninterrupted.
Example B: Brink Communications has a digital satellite that provides broadcast television services. Two years after launch, it's clear that switched Internet traffic offers far more opportunities and higher profits.
Solution: Brink quickly reconfigures its digital channelizer payload to carry Internet traffic via its onboard switch, transitioning capacity between old and new services as business demands. Revenue increases.
| DSP payloads offer nearly perfect signal processing in an ideal mathematical world. BSS' DSP customers can enjoy equally excellent real-world results. |
Our very large scale DSP communication payloads offer unparalleled flexibility, performance, and producibility as a result of four full generations of development on government and commercial programs. In a further evolution, Hughes Space and Communications Company is now part of Boeing Satellite Systems, Inc. (BSS).
20,000-Circuit TDMA Switch |
After 15 years of cumulative expertise in smaller DSP units, we took the lead in large-scale DSP a decade ago. Our systems feature application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) with exceptionally high logic gate capacity, which translates into fewer parts per payload,higher reliability, increased functionality, and flexibility to add features. Since 1990 we have delivered and/or flown numerous moderate size and 50 very large scale DSP units incorporating 80 to 2000 complex DSP ASICs per payload--all with first-pass success.