Nexcode: Next Generation Uplink Coding Techniques

NEXCODE is a project promoted by the European Space Agency, aimed at research, design, development, and demonstration of a receiver chain for telecommand links in space missions, including the presence of new short low-density parity-check codes for error correction. These codes have excellent performance from the error rate viewpoint but also put new challenges as regards synchronization issues and implementation. In this paper, after a short review of the results obtained through numerical simulations, we present an overview of the breadboard designed for practical testing and the test-plan proposed for the verification of the breadboard and the validation of the new codes and novel synchronization techniques under relevant operation conditions.