Reliable, maintenance-free radio-frequency hardware architecture

A redundancy architecture for a communications system, the redundancy architecture comprising:

• a series of input ports;
• a series of output ports;
• a plurality of active radio-frequency (RF) hardware units arranged in parallel, each active RF hardware unit comprising a low-noise amplifier;
• at least one RF signal splitter connecting the series of input ports to the plurality of active RF hardware units;
• and
• at least one RF signal combiner connecting the plurality of active RF hardware units to the series of output ports,
• wherein the redundancy architecture is configured such that an RF input signal provided at any given input port of the series of input ports is split into multiple copies of the RF input signal that are then processed by respective active RF hardware units of the plurality of active RF hardware units and, after being processed, combined into an RF output signal at a given output port of the series of output ports, and
• wherein the redundancy architecture is configured such that the RF input signal passes through the redundancy architecture orthogonal in phase to another RF input signal provided at another input port of the series of input ports, and
• wherein the redundancy architecture is configured such that the RF output signal is orthogonal in phase to another output signal provided at another output port of the series of output ports.

A redundancy architecture for a communications system, the redundancy architecture comprising:

• m input ports;
• m output ports;
• n active radio-frequency (RF) hardware units arranged in parallel, each active RF hardware unit comprising a low-noise amplifier;
• an m×n input matrix connecting the m input ports to the n active RF hardware units;
• and
• an n×m output matrix connecting the n active RF hardware units to the m output ports,
• wherein the redundancy architecture is configured such that an RF input signal provided at any given input port of the m input ports is split into n copies of the RF input signal that are then processed by respective active RF hardware units of the n active RF hardware units and, after being processed, combined into an RF output signal at a given output port of the m output ports,
• wherein the redundancy architecture is configured such that the RF input signal passes through the redundancy architecture orthogonal in phase to another RF input signal provided at another input port of the m input ports, and
• wherein the redundancy architecture is configured such that the RF output signal is orthogonal in phase to another output signal provided at another output port of the m output ports.