High efficiency multi-beam antenna
AssigneeSpace Systems/Loral, Inc.
InventorDouglas G. Burr
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A spacecraft has a high efficiency multi-beam antenna (MBA) system that serves a coverage region on the Earth. The coverage region subtends an angle, when viewed from the spacecraft, of at least ten degrees. The antenna system provides, within the coverage region, at least sixteen spot beams. A signal provided by the MBA system to each spot beam has a carrier to interference ratio (C/I) of no less than 20 dB. The system enables use of a three color frequency reuse scheme without recourse to signal encoding.
Claims31
A spacecraft having a multi-beam antenna (MBA) system configured to provide a communications service to a coverage region on the Earth, the coverage region subtending an angle, when viewed from the spacecraft, of at least ten degrees, wherein:
- the MBA system is configured to provide, within the coverage region, at least sixteen spot beams,
- the communication service to the coverage region employs a three color frequency reuse scheme, wherein each color of the three color frequency reuse scheme defines a different particular combination of frequency sub band and polarization, and
- a carrier to interference ratio (C/I) associated with interference between any two commonly colored spot beams is at least 20 dB.
An apparatus comprising:
- a multi-beam antenna (MBA) system for a spacecraft, the MBA system configured to provide a communications service to a coverage region on the Earth, the coverage region subtending an angle, when viewed from the spacecraft in a geosynchronous orbit, of at least ten degrees, wherein:
- the MBA system is configured to provide, within the coverage region, at least sixteen spot beams,
- the communication service to the coverage region employs a three color frequency reuse scheme, wherein each color of the three color frequency reuse scheme defines a different particular combination of frequency sub band and polarization, and
- a carrier to interference ratio (C/I) associated with interference between any two commonly colored spot beams is at least 20 dB.
A spacecraft having a multi-beam antenna (MBA) system configured to provide a communications service to a coverage region on the Earth, the coverage region subtending an angle, when viewed from the spacecraft, of approximately five degrees, wherein:
- the MBA system is configured to provide, within the coverage region, at least sixteen spot beams,
- the communication service to the coverage region employs a three color frequency reuse scheme, wherein each color of the three color frequency reuse scheme defines a different particular combination of frequency sub band and polarization, and
- a carrier to interference ratio (C/I) associated with interference between any two commonly colored spot beams is at least 20 dB.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.