Implementation of an IEEE802.11a Transmitter Module for a Reconfigurable System-on-a-Chip Design

Future formation flying satellite missions are being developed for a number of applications including Earth observation, space weather monitoring, etc.. To carry out such missions effectively, intersatellite communication and on-board computing systems with adaptable processing capabilities will be needed. The underlying communication parameters and the satellite network topology will vary as a result of orbital dynamics and perturbations. In such a context, a flexible and reconfigurable on-board computing system becomes necessary. In this paper a system-on-a-chip design is proposed comprising of a general purpose processor and an IEEE 802.11 wireless network transceiver core, adapted to the space environment. Initial results on a novel implementation of the IEEE802.11a transmitter module are presented