W-Band Satellite Transmission in the WAVE Mission

Satellite communication systems play an important role in the deployment of a global communication infrastructure, and the increasing demand for frequency bands with large bandwidth availability to satisfy satellite communications applications requirements makes the exploration of higher and higher frequency ranges of a vital importance. In this paper, an introduction to the WAVE (W-Band Analysis and VErification) mission is presented, in addition to a general overview of the payload architecture and the related perspective applications and services. WAVE is a new project proposed for the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to design and develop a W-band geostationary payload with the aim of performing the experimental studies of the W-band channel and possible utilization in satellite data communications.