High throughput satellites in 5G and MIMO interference limited communications

Classically, thermal noise has been the workhorse of satellite communications due to the long distances to be covered between the satellite and the user terminal (UT). Lately, LDPC (Low-Density Parity-Check) codes allow the noise threshold to be set very close to the Shannon limit for the memory-less satellite channel; thus, solving the noise problem that turbo codes were not able to solve. However, recently, the high target rates in next generation 5G wireless terrestrial system are pushing the required spectral efficiency in Satellite Communications; therefore, shifting the SatCom paradigm towards an interference limited one. This paper revisits the 5G scene and the role of next generation satellite communications, with a special focus on high throughput satellites (HTS) together with the future accompanying MIMO interference mitigation techniques