A Scalable Architecture for Future Regenerative Satellite Payloads

Abstract: This paper addresses the limitations of current satellite payload architectures, which are predominantly hardware-driven and lack the flexibility to adapt to increasing data demands and uneven traffic. To overcome these challenges, we present a novel architecture for future regenerative and programmable satellite payloads and utilize interconnected modem banks to promote higher scalability and flexibility. We formulate an optimization problem to efficiently manage traffic among these modem banks and balance the load. Additionally, we provide comparative numerical simulation results, considering end-to-end delay and packet loss analysis. The results illustrate that our proposed architecture maintains lower delays and packet loss even with higher traffic demands and smaller buffer sizes.