Performance Evaluation of Space-time Coding on an Airborne Test Platform

Typical airborne test platforms use multiple telemetry transmit antennas in a top and bottom configuration in order to mitigate signal shadowing during maneuvers on high dynamic platforms. While mitigating one problem, this also creates a co-channel interference problem as the same signal, time delayed with differing amplitude, is sent to both antennas. Space-Time Coding (STC) was developed with the intention of mitigating this co-channel interference problem, also known as the “two antenna problem”. Lab testing and preliminary flight testing of developmental and pre-production hardware has been completed and documented. This is the first test dedicated to assessing the performance of a production STC system in a real-world test environment. This paper will briefly describe lab testing that preceded the flight testing, describes the airborne and ground station configurations used during the flight test, and provides detailed results of the performance of the space time coded telemetry link as compared against a reference telemetry link.