Space-Time Rate-Splitting Multiple Access for Multibeam LEO Satellite Networks

Abstract: This paper proposes a novel space-time rate-splitting multiple access (ST-RSMA) framework for multibeam low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications (SATCOM) systems, where space-time coding is integrated into the common stream transmission. This design enables full diversity gain in the common stream transmission for all users, regardless of the uncertainty of the channel state information (CSI) and network load conditions, thereby overcoming the performance limitations of conventional RSMA that employs a single beamforming vector for all users. To further enhance performance, we develop a weighted minimum mean square error (WMMSE)-based algorithm tailored to ST-RSMA that jointly optimizes the power allocation for the common stream and the power/beamforming vectors for private streams, aiming to maximize the minimum user rate. Numerical results show that ST-RSMA significantly outperforms conventional RSMA and other multiple access techniques, offering a robust and scalable solution for LEO SATCOM.