Low Complexity Multi-User Detection in the Forward Link of High Throughput Satellite Systems

Multi-user detection (MUD) is an advanced interference mitigation technique relevant for high throughput satellites in the forward link to mitigate co-channel interferences introduced by an aggressive frequency reuse. MUD mitigates the interference directly at the receiver on ground and requires therefore a higher complexity in the user terminals. In this work a software-based system demonstrator was utilized to analyze performance-efficient implementations of MUD in the receiving unit on ground. The number of detector and, in further consequence, decoder iterations were identified as crucial factors in this context. The study compares the performance in terms of processing speed, accuracy and required iterations.