  The present work focuses on the forward link of a broadband multibeam
satellite system that aggressively reuses the user link frequency resources.
Two fundamental practical challenges, namely the need to frame multiple users
per transmission and the per-antenna transmit power limitations, are addressed.
To this end, the so-called frame-based precoding problem is optimally solved
using the principles of physical layer multicasting to multiple co-channel
groups under per-antenna constraints. In this context, a novel optimization
problem that aims at maximizing the system sum rate under individual power
constraints is proposed. Added to that, the formulation is further extended to
include availability constraints. As a result, the high gains of the sum rate
optimal design are traded off to satisfy the stringent availability
requirements of satellite systems. Moreover, the throughput maximization with a
granular spectral efficiency versus SINR function, is formulated and solved.
Finally, a multicast-aware user scheduling policy, based on the channel state
information, is developed. Thus, substantial multiuser diversity gains are
gleaned. Numerical results over a realistic simulation environment exhibit as
much as 30% gains over conventional systems, even for 7 users per frame,
without modifying the framing structure of legacy communication standards.
