Carrier Aggregation (CA) is an integral part of current cellular networks. Its ability to enhance the peak data rate, to efficiently utilize the limited available spectrum resources and to satisfy the demand for data-hungry applications has drawn large attention from different wireless network communities. Given the benefits of CA in the terrestrial wireless environment, it is of great interest to analyze and evaluate the potential impact of CA in the satellite domain. In this article, we provide a brief introduction to the possible CA configurations, their deployment scenarios/use cases as well as their advantages, disadvantages, and challenges. Next, the problem of multiuser aggregation and access control design for CA in multi-beam high throughput satellite systems under practical system constraints is presented. In particular, we propose an efficient CA design solution that gives the optimal carrier-user assignment along with the percentage that each user exploits each carrier assuming that multiple users can be multiplexed in each carrier. Both inter-transponder and intra-transponder CA at the satellite payload level of the communication stack are considered. We propose a flexible carrier allocation approach for a CA-enabled multi-beam satellite system targeting a proportionally fair user demand satisfaction. Simulation results and analysis shed some light on this rather unexplored scenario and demonstrate the feasibility of the CA in satellite communication systems.

中文翻译：

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卫星通信中的载波聚合：影响和性能研究

载波聚合（CA）是当前蜂窝网络不可或缺的一部分。它具有提高峰值数据速率，有效利用有限的可用频谱资源以及满足对数据繁忙的应用程序的需求的能力，引起了不同无线网络社区的广泛关注。鉴于CA在地面无线环境中的优势，非常有兴趣分析和评估CA在卫星领域的潜在影响。在本文中，我们简要介绍了可能的CA配置，它们的部署方案/用例以及它们的优点，缺点和挑战。接下来，提出了在实际系统约束下多波束高吞吐量卫星系统中CA的多用户聚合和访问控制设计的问题。尤其是，我们提出了一种有效的CA设计解决方案，该方案可提供最佳的运营商-用户分配以及假设每个用户可以在每个载波中多路复用的情况下每个用户利用每个载波的百分比。同时考虑了通信堆栈的卫星有效载荷级别的转发器间和转发器内CA。我们针对以比例公平的用户需求满意度为目标的支持CA的多波束卫星系统提出了一种灵活的载波分配方法。仿真结果和分析为这种尚未探索的情况提供了一些启示，并证明了CA在卫星通信系统中的可行性。同时考虑了通信堆栈的卫星有效载荷级别的转发器间和转发器内CA。我们针对以比例公平的用户需求满意度为目标的支持CA的多波束卫星系统提出了一种灵活的载波分配方法。仿真结果和分析为这种尚未探索的情况提供了一些启示，并证明了CA在卫星通信系统中的可行性。同时考虑了通信堆栈的卫星有效载荷级别的转发器间和转发器内CA。我们针对以比例公平的用户需求满意度为目标的支持CA的多波束卫星系统提出了一种灵活的载波分配方法。仿真结果和分析为这种尚未探索的情况提供了一些启示，并证明了CA在卫星通信系统中的可行性。