LDPC Decoding Software Implementation for Satellite TT&C SDR Modem Application

About

Celestia Antwerp is a leading company in Belgium, active in the field of satellite ground communication technology. It is part of the Celestia Technologies Group.

Celestia Antwerp’s core business is in the delivery of satellite communication solutions for the ground segment extension with products and systems. Celestia Antwerp operates both on the commercial and institutional markets, supporting space agency programs, as well as industrial company projects worldwide. The company activities have been located in Antwerp since 1962, when it was founded as part of Bell Telephone.

Type and Description

Type:

Master Thesis   

Description:

The error correction codes are widely used in digital communication systems to correct the transmission errors. The space industry, following CCSDS  & ECSS standard recommendations, makes use of the LDPC (Low-Density Parity-Check code) decoding scheme to improve robustness against errors in some specific mission scenarios. Typically, this algorithm is mostly implemented with Field Programmable Gates Array (FPGA) for very high-speed receivers. Tremendous improvements have been made to CPU architectures (e.g. SIMD (Single Instruction on Multiple Data)) and Graphics Processing Units (GPU) offering excellent throughput performance on vectorized mathematic operations through a high degree of parallel computations. Without reaching the performance level of FPGA, these improvements however allow to fulfill the growing rate requirements for Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C) equipment. Hence, the scope of this project is to develop a Software library for high-speed LDPC decoding taking benefits of

  • Intel SIMD instruction sets (e.g. AVX256/512) or
  • GPU (OpenCL or CUDA) or
  • Multithreading

 

Objective and Deliverables:

Objective:

The objective of this thesis consists in the development of parallelized software libraries (AVX (preferred), GPU or multithreading) for efficient LDPC decoding (CCSDS 131.0-B-3). He/She shall finish this activity with a presentation to a mixed audience of academical & industrial experts.

Expected deliverables:

The following deliverables are expected:

  • Documentation : State of the art analysis, Detailed Design Architecture (Algorithms, Software), Final Report, Final Presentation.
  • LDPC decoding libraries (executables and source code).
  • Testing tools (executables, source code and documentation).

 

Timetable:

      Duration:

      3-4 months

      Milestones:

      • Month 1: State of the art analysis & proposed preliminary architecture.
      • Month 2: Implementation.
      • Month 3: Test & performance optimization.
      • Month 4: Final report.
      • Month 4: Project closure & Final presentation.

       

      Critera:

      Evaluation Criteria

      The following will be taken into account for the final evaluation.

      • Demonstrated technical skills.
      • Timeline of deliverables vs agreed plan.
      • Quality  of deliverable.
      • Level of autonomy shown by the candidate.
      • Motivation and initiatives taken.

       

       

      Location:

      Berchem (Antwerp), Belgium

       

      More Information about Celestia and other potential internship or open vacancies:

      https://www.celestia-antwerp.be/en/home

      Apply to this position

      Would you be interested in this internship or would you like to get more information about this internship, please take contact with hr@celestia-antwerp.be.