Space Technology

XLINK / XLINK-IOD

Project Facts

Project NameX-Band transceiver for pico and nano satellites
Grant No.50 YB 1634

Project Description

Within the coopration project XLink a novel satellite transceiver for communication in the X band (8 GHz) is developed by Technische Universität Berlin and the IQ wireless GmbH. The advancing miniaturization of satellite technology leads to continuously growing quantities of data that can be transmitted to earth only under certain constraints due to limited downlink bandwidth. The new XLink transceiver provides high-performance and bandwidth-efficient transmission technology and is a measure to answer these steadily increasing requirements. For the uplink, the new band within the X band range shall be used which was released by the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2015 for this purpose. A conventional S band uplink is also feasible using the XLink transceiver.

The transceiver is planned to provide a high-speed data rate of at least 25 Mbps. Higher data rate of up to 150 Mbps can be realized by concept through the use of powerful antennas in broader RF bands. The implementation of current ECSS and CCSDS standards is intended for the XLink transceiver. Furthermore, failure safety and reliability shall be guaranteed through transmitter redundancy. This wide scope of services shall be enabled through flexibly configurable modulation and coding procedures on the one hand and by implementing two independent polarization paths (MIMO) for the transmitter signal on the other hand. After successful completion of ground testing, the transceiver shall be qualified for the use in pico- and nanosatellites within fields of application such as Earth observation and science missions.

Link to the XLink product page of the IQ wireless GmbH

Funding & Acknowledge

  • XLink/XLink-IOD is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.

Publications

Noack, Daniel; Jäckel, Klaus; Reibe, Mathias; Hartmann, Frank; Pirwitz, Stefan and Brieß, Klaus (2017). XLINK - A 0.3 U Sized X-Band Transceiver for NanoSats.  68th International Astronautical Congress

Reibe, Mathias; Jäckel, Klaus; Barschke, Merlin F. and Jonglez, Clément (2019). A Modular Family of High Data Rate SDR Transceivers.  Proceedings of the 33nd AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites