Satellite communication with modularized mobile earth stations (MESs)
AssigneeViaSat, Inc.
InventorsJordan M. Corey, Jimmy Tran
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A communication system includes a plurality of MESs arranged at different locations and operating as a unit to communicate with one or more satellites. One of the MESs is configured in a leader mode and each remaining MES of the MESs is configured in a follower mode based on a result of an auto-negotiation. In the leader mode, the one MES manages combining/dividing of satellite-related signals communicated between the one MES and each of the remaining MESs.
Claims22
A communication system comprising:
- a plurality of mobile earth stations (MESs), each including an antenna for direct communication with a satellite, a transceiver front end coupled to the antenna, a modem for transmitting and/or receiving data signals to/from external end user equipment, memory, and a controller, coupled to the transceiver front end and the modem, operative to execute instructions read from the memory, the plurality of MESs being arranged at different locations and operating as a unit to communicate with one or more satellites,
- wherein one MES of the plurality of MESs is configured in a leader mode and each remaining MES of the MESs is configured in a follower mode based on a result of an auto-negotiation among the plurality of MESs, wherein in the leader mode the one MES manages coherent combining/dividing of satellite-related signals communicated between the one MES and each of the remaining MESs,
- wherein the auto-negotiation is an initial auto-negotiation when the unit is initialized, and the result of the auto-negotiation is a determination that the one MES is to be initially configured in the leader mode by default, and
- wherein the one MES operating in the leader mode is configured to provide, to the remaining MESs, satellite channel configuration data including tuning, center frequency and/or symbol rate data.
A first mobile earth station (MES), among a plurality of MESs each including an antenna for direct communication with a satellite, the plurality of MESs being arranged at different locations and operational as a unit to communicate with one or more satellites, the first MES comprising:
- an antenna for transmitting an uplink signal and/or receiving a downlink signal from the one or more satellites;
- a transceiver front end coupled to the antenna;
- a modem for transmitting and/or receiving data signals to/from external end user equipment;
- memory;
- and
- a controller, coupled to the transceiver front end and the modem, operative to execute instructions read from the memory to:
- auto-negotiate with remaining MESs of the plurality of MESs to determine which one of the MESs should operate in a leader mode;
- configure the first MES in the leader mode and each of the remaining MESs in a follower mode based on a result of the auto-negotiation;
- and
- manage, when the first MES is configured in the leader mode, coherent combining/dividing of satellite-related signals communicated between the first MES and each of the remaining MESs,
- wherein the auto-negotiation is an initial auto-negotiation when the unit is initialized, and the result of the auto-negotiation is a determination that the one MES is to be initially configured in the leader mode by default, and
- wherein the one MES operating in the leader mode is configured to provide, to the remaining MESs, satellite channel configuration data including tuning, center frequency and/or symbol rate data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.