Piero Angeletti

 ABSTRACT - The landscape of satellite communications is undergoing a dramatic transformation, driven by the rise of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) constellations like Starlink, OneWeb, mPower and Kuiper. These constellations and their evolutions demand unprecedented flexibility and capacity, moving away from traditional, fixed-beam architectures towards dynamic, software-defined solutions. At the heart of this revolution lies advanced beamforming, encompassing analog, digital, and hybrid techniques, enabling the creation and manipulation of hundreds, even thousands, of simultaneous beams.

This lecture will delve into the cutting-edge advancements in analog and digital beamforming for multibeam antennas (MBAs), focusing on its critical role in enabling the agility and high throughput required by modern satellite systems. We'll explore how advanced analog and digital beamforming architectures overcomes the limitations of traditional approaches.

Key topics covered will include:

• The shift from analog to digital beamforming: Understanding the advantages of digital processing in generating and controlling large numbers of beams.
• Architectures for high-density beamforming: Exploring analog, digital and hybrid solutions, and their hardware and software implementations enabling the creation of 100-200+ beams on satellite payloads.
• Advanced signal processing techniques: Discussing algorithms for beam steering, interference mitigation, and dynamic resource allocation in digital beamforming systems.
• Integration of digital beamforming with active phased arrays: Examining the interplay between antenna elements, digital processing units, and beamforming algorithms.
• Applications in LEO/MEO constellations: Highlighting the specific challenges and solutions related to digital beamforming in these dynamic environments, including examples from current and future satellite systems.
• Future trends and research directions: Discussing emerging technologies and potential advancements in digital beamforming for satellite communications.

This lecture will provide a comprehensive overview of the theoretical foundations and practical implementations of advanced analog and digital beamforming for multibeam applications, catering to both antenna and microwave engineers, as well as those involved in communication systems and signal processing

The material draws upon the speaker’s extensive experience and is informed by the highly successful course co-instructed with Dr. Giovanni Toso on “Multibeam Antennas and Beamforming Networks,” delivered to over a thousand participants at leading IEEE conferences (AP-S, MTT-S, EuCAP, EuMW, etc.) over the past decade.

Biography:

Piero Angeletti (IEEE M’07, SM’13) received the Laurea degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Ancona (Italy) in 1996, and the PhD in Electromagnetism from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (Italy) in 2010. His 30 years experience in RF Systems engineering and technical management encompasses conceptual/architectural design, trade-offs, detailed design, production, integration and testing of satellite payloads and active antenna systems for commercial/military telecommunications and navigation (spanning all the operating bands and set of applications) as well as for multifunction RADARs and electronic counter measure systems. Dr. Angeletti is currently member of the technical staff of the European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC) of the European Space Agency, in Noordwijk (The Netherlands). He is with the Radio Frequency Systems, Payload and Technology Division of the ESA Technical and Quality Management Directorate which is responsible for RF space communication systems, instrumentation, subsystems, equipment and technologies. In particular he oversees ESA R&D activities related to flexible satellite payloads, RF front-ends and on-board digital processors. Dr. Angeletti authored/co-authored over 300 technical reports, book chapters and papers published in peer reviewed professional journals and international conferences’ proceedings