dBm Corporation, a pioneering force in RF test equipment and components, has introduced the Advanced Channel Emulator (ACE9600) to address the evolving needs of satellite communications testing.

The dBm Advanced Channel Emulator (ACE) is one of the most advanced non-terrestrial RF channel emulation solutions to date. Its capabilities encompass the emulation of critical impairments such as delay, signal Doppler, attenuation, phase offset, AWGN, frequency hopping, payload, and multipath fading.

This state-of-the-art instrument can accommodate up to four 600 MHz instantaneous bandwidth channels, offering unparalleled flexibility. Impairment emulation can be set to fixed values in Static mode or continuously changed in real time in Dynamic mode without any phase discontinuities.

Meeting the Challenges of Testing SATCOM Systems

As global interest in space exploration intensifies, nations like the United States, India, Russia, and China aiming to return to the moon, with a short-term objective of uncovering water to sustain long-term manned missions.  Along with the renewed interest comes the development of new technologies to support the exploration, including new communications systems for spacecraft in lunar orbit and for communicating with earth-based relay stations.

The challenge lies in testing satellite communications systems in laboratories before launch. Satellite channel emulators are used to emulate the impairments the signal will encounter during its travel, including time delays, Doppler, and multipath reflections, and typically have a maximum RF link emulation time of 1.2 seconds. Considering the vast distances of the moon from the Earth; round-trip communication takes 2.56 seconds. Additionally, one-way communication time to the first Lagrange point (L1), where the gravities of the Earth and the sun balance, takes 7.5 seconds.

dBm's ACE9600: A Game-Changing Solution

Enter dBmCorp's revolutionary ACE9600, a state-of-the-art satellite channel emulator designed to redefine the landscape of communications system testing. The ACE9600 employs innovative decimation techniques, extending the delay time to an unprecedented 11.2 seconds. This accomplishment translates to four times the round-trip time to the moon and back, and 1.5 times the duration to reach the first Lagrange point (L1). With the ACE9600, dBm facilitates comprehensive and realistic communications system testing in laboratory environments, for renewed space exploration applications.

Features and Benefits

• Ephemeris data generation using SATGEN
• Remote instrument control through the ACEClient application
• Payload Emulation including:
  • IMUX/OMUX amplitude and group delay distortion
  • Amplifier Compression (AM/AM and AM/PM)
  • Phase Noise
• Link Emulation including:
  • AWGN and Eb/No
  • 12 tap (path) multipath fading with Rayleigh, Rician & CW. Angle of Arrival (AOA), k-factor, and correlation controls
  • RF frequency agile up/down converters

Click here to learn more about dBm's ACE9600 Satellite Channel Emulator.

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