MDA

Digital Communication

MDA designed and developed the SpaceMux, launched in 2004 on the Anik-F2 commercial telecommunications satellite, the first North American DVB-RCS compatible On-Board Processor.​ SpaceMux provides direct terminal-to-terminal connectivity for satellite-based mesh networking applications that require regenerative broadband, multimedia, and communication payloads.

The state-of-the-art SpaceMux contained a digital frequency demultiplexer and high-speed multi-carrier demodulator, developments later leveraged for the development of the Frequency Demultiplexer Modules for the Enhanced Skyplex Regenerative Transponder Units, and the development of a high speed

(350 Mbps) continuous mode QPSK demodulator for the CASSIOPE satellite. MDA has since delivered a development unit for a digital communication Dehop-Rehop transponder for an external customer.

MDA develops processing algorithms and delivers turnkey communication subsystems that incorporate analogue front-end and back-end modules, representing a full spectrum capability central to the development of next-generation digital communication subsystems. MDA’s work on flexible digital channelizers, digital beamformers reconfigurable on-board processors, and digital interface units is central to the realization of future flexible software-defined communication satellites.