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OwnerKenneth V. Buer, Mark J. Miller +3inventors
InventorsKenneth V. Buer, Mark J. Miller, Christopher J. Cronin, Mark D. Dankberg, Donald L. Runyon
Estimating the term…
Methods and systems are described for providing end-to-end beamforming. For example, end-to-end beamforming systems include end-to-end relays and ground networks to provide communications to user terminals located in user beam coverage areas. The ground segment can include geographically distributed access nodes and a central processing system. Return uplink signals, transmitted from the user terminals, have multipath induced by a plurality of receive/transmit signal paths in the end to end relay and are relayed to the ground network. The ground network, using beamformers, recovers user data streams transmitted by the user terminals from return downlink signals. The ground network, using beamformers generates forward uplink signals from appropriately weighted combinations of user data streams that, after relay by the end-end-end relay, produce forward downlink signals that combine to form user beams.
1-4. (canceled)
A satellite configured for operation as an end-to-end relay in a satellite communications system configured for end-to-end beamforming from a plurality of geographically distributed satellite access nodes (SANs) to a plurality of reference locations, each reference location corresponding to a respective one among a plurality of forward user beam coverage areas, the satellite comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.