Spectral efficiency of linear and continuous phase modulations over nonlinear satellite channels

We consider a frequency-division-multiplexed satellite system where nonlinear distortions may originate from the presence of high power nonlinear devices and can cause significant performance degradations. The spectral efficiency is used as a performance measure to compare, from an information-theoretic point of view, different transmission strategies and modulation formats. More precisely, we will consider transmission schemes employing continuous phase modulations, which are robust to nonlinearities, and schemes based on linear modulations and employing a detector taking into account the nonlinear effects or more traditional techniques, such those based on predistortion of the nonlinear device.