Comtech Releases Evolved High-Performance Satellite Modems
A Comtech Telecommunications facility. Photo: Comtech
Comtech Telecommunications announced the release of the VersaFEC-2 High-Performance Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) option board and version 1.5 for the CDM-570A/Large Internet Packet (L-IP) satellite modems.
The VersaFEC-2 waveform is an evolved version of the VersaFEC waveform. VersaFEC-2 was designed to provide optimal performance for latency sensitive applications that require the highest coding performance at the lowest latency, according to Comtech. It features 74 modulation and coding combinations (ModCods) and a new family of constellations that allows better operation on non-linear satellite channels, outperforming the Digital Video Broadcasting-Satellite-Second Generation (DVB-S2) standard. This new innovation provides two operational modes: Long-Block and Short-Block.
VersaFEC-2 is available as an optional plug-in board for the CDM-570A/L-IP satellite modems. Presence of the VersaFEC-2 board enables VersaFEC-2 operation up to the modem’s purchased data rate and symbol rate.
“End-to-end latency significantly affects connection-oriented and interactive applications, either severely reducing the speed and quality of the application or, worse, causing the application not to operate at all,” said Naresh Jain, vice president of product management for Comtech EF Data. “VersaFEC-2 was purpose-built to support these applications at the low-to-medium data rates.”
In addition to VersaFEC-2, version 1.5 also provides CarrierID support for the CDM-570A/L-IP satellite modems. CarrierID is based on Comtech EF Data’s MetaCarrier spread spectrum technology, which embeds a unique carrier identification sequence for the transmitted carrier to help identify interfering satellite carriers. CarrierID is a software option that can be ordered with the modem or enabled in the field using a FAST code. The CDM-570A/L-IP with MetaCarrier is used in tandem with the Comtech EF Data’s MCDD-100 MetaCarrier Detection Device to provide a complete MetaCarrier embedding and decoding solution.