Aggregate rate modem
AssigneeViaSat, Inc.
InventorsMark D. Dankberg, William H. Thesling
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems, devices, processors, and methods are described for the transmission and reception of broadband signals between a gateway and subscriber terminals via satellite. In one set of embodiments, a wireless signal is generated and transmitted including a series of frames including a physical layer header and payload. A sub-channel identifier may be included in the physical layer header to identify the sub-channel for the payload, and allow for various novel filtering techniques at the subscriber terminal. The frames may be generated to be of substantially equal duration. Novel subscriber terminal configurations are described to leverage this formatting.
Claims25
A terminal to receive a wireless signal from a satellite, the terminal comprising:
- a receiver unit configured to receive the wireless signal transmitted via the satellite;
- a header processing unit, communicatively coupled with the receiver unit, and configured to:
- receive a digitized stream comprising a physical layer signal representative of the received wireless signal;
- process the digitized stream to detect a first header identifier identifying a first header portion of the digitized stream;
- and
- demodulate and decode the first header portion to detect a first sub-channel identifier for a physical layer payload associated with the first header portion;
- and
- a filter unit, communicatively coupled with the header processing unit, and configured to:
- store one or more sub-channel identifiers indicating whether an associated physical layer payload is to be demodulated and decoded by the terminal;
- determine that the first sub-channel identifier matches one or more of the stored identifiers indicating that an associated physical layer payload should be filtered before demodulation and decoding;
- and
- filter the physical layer payload associated with the first header portion to prevent demodulation and decoding.
A processor for processing a digitized representation of a wireless signal received from a satellite, the processor comprising:
- a header processing unit configured to:
- receive a digitized stream comprising a physical layer signal representative of the wireless signal received from the satellite;
- process the digitized stream to detect a first header identifier identifying a first header portion of the digitized stream;
- extract the identified first header portion of the digitized stream;
- and
- demodulate and decode the first header portion to detect a first sub-channel identifier for a physical layer payload associated with the first header portion;
- and
- a filter unit, communicatively coupled with the header processing unit, and configured to:
- access a listing of one or more sub-channel identifiers indicating whether an associated physical layer payload is to be demodulated and decoded;
- determine whether the first sub-channel identifier matches one or more of the listed identifiers that indicate an associated physical layer payload is to be demodulated and decoded;
- and
- filter the digitized stream comprising the physical layer payload associated with the first header portion to prevent the filtered payload from being demodulated or decoded.
A method of processing a digital representation of a wireless signal received from a satellite, the method comprising:
- receiving a digitized stream comprising a physical layer signal representative of the wireless signal received from the satellite;
- processing the digitized stream to detect a header identifier identifying a first header portion of the digitized stream;
- demodulating and decoding the header portion to detect a sub-channel identifier for a physical layer payload associated with the header portion;
- and
- determining whether the sub-channel identifier comprises one or more of a set of sub-channel identifiers specifying that an associated physical layer payload is to be filtered from demodulation and decoding.
A satellite communications system comprising:
- a gateway configured to transmit a wireless signal sent to a satellite for retransmission to a terminal;
- the satellite, in wireless communication with the terminal and the gateway, and configured to receive the wireless signal from the gateway and retransmit the received signal to the terminal;
- and
- the terminal comprising:
- a receiver unit configured to receive the retransmitted wireless signal from the satellite;
- a header processing unit configured to:
- receive a digitized stream comprising a physical layer signal representative of a signal received from a satellite;
- process the digitized stream to recognize a header identifier identifying a header portion of the digitized stream;
- and
- demodulate and decode the header portion to detect a sub-channel identifier for payload associated with the header portion;
- and
- a filter unit, communicatively coupled with the header processing unit, and configured to:
- access a listing of one or more sub-channel identifiers indicating whether an associated physical layer payload is to be demodulated and decoded;
- determine that the first sub-channel identifier does not match one or more of the listed identifiers;
- and
- filter the digitized stream comprising the payload to prevent the payload from being demodulated or decoded.
A signal embodied in a transmission medium, the signal comprising a physical layer frame including:
- a physical layer header formatted to be extractable from the physical layer frame, the physical layer header including:
- a header identifier identifying the physical layer header and formatted to be detectable by a terminal;
- and
- a sub-channel identifier identifying a sub-channel for the frame;
- and
- a physical layer payload associated with the physical layer header, and formatted to be filtered before demodulation and decode based at least in part on the sub-channel identifier.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.