US 2026/0095243 A1Published application

Edge computing and metasurfaces in non-terrestrial network-connected transcoder nodes

AssigneeDell Products L.P.

InventorsTejinder Singh, Navjot Kaur Khaira, Michael J. Healy

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Abstract

The technology described herein is directed towards a transcoder with bypass capabilities that can be used to couple non-terrestrial network satellites to user equipment (UEs), including by decoding and reencoding data packets at the packet level for existing Satcom satellites. An edge computing device with trained artificial intelligence models in transcoder nodes optimize bandwidth usage, reduce latency, and enhance the performance of real-time applications, whereby a transcoder device can handle data preprocessing, anomaly detection, predictive analytics, and real-time optimization, reducing the need for satellite bandwidth. A metasurface (reconfigurable intelligent surface, or RIS) redirects signals from the satellite to a satellite radio frequency (RF) interface of the transcoder, with the transcoder also coupled by a UE RF interface to a UE, such as a computing device or cellphone. For a Satcom satellite, the transcoder converts, at the packet level, satellite-originating signals to UE-compliant signals, and converts UE-originating signals to Satcom-compliant signals.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system, comprising:

a metasurface;
and
a device comprising:
a Layer-1 physical interface (L1-PHY) uplink transcoder path,
an uplink bypass path,
an uplink multiplexer comprising a first uplink multiplexer input coupled to the L1-PHY uplink transcoder path, a second uplink multiplexer input coupled to the uplink bypass path, and an uplink multiplexer output coupled to the metasurface,
wherein the L1-PHY uplink transcoder path converts terrestrial uplink communication signals from a user equipment configured for cellular telecommunications to non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication (Satcom) signals, and routes the non-terrestrial uplink communication signals to the first uplink multiplexer input, and wherein the uplink bypass path bypasses the L1-PHY uplink transcoder path, and routes the terrestrial uplink communication signals as direct-to-device non-terrestrial uplink communication signals to the second uplink multiplexer input,
an L1-PHY downlink transcoder path coupled to the metasurface,
a downlink bypass path coupled to the metasurface,
a downlink multiplexer comprising a first downlink multiplexer input coupled to the L1-PHY downlink transcoder path, a second downlink multiplexer input coupled to the downlink bypass path, and a downlink multiplexer output coupled to the user equipment,
wherein the L1-PHY downlink transcoder path converts non-terrestrial downlink Satcom signals, obtained from a satellite via the metasurface, to terrestrial downlink communication signals, and routes the terrestrial downlink communication signals to the first downlink multiplexer input, and wherein the downlink bypass path bypasses the L1-PHY downlink transcoder path, and routes direct-to-device non-terrestrial downlink communication signals, obtained from the satellite via the metasurface, as terrestrial uplink communication signals to the second downlink multiplexer input, and
an edge compute device that:
performs data preprocessing on the terrestrial uplink communication signals, and
executes a switching and control model, the switching and control model:
selecting between a first uplink multiplexer state that couples the first uplink multiplexer input to the uplink multiplexer output, or a second uplink multiplexer state that couples the second uplink multiplexer input to the uplink multiplexer output, and
selecting between a first downlink multiplexer state that couples the first downlink multiplexer input to the downlink multiplexer output, or a second downlink multiplexer state that couples the second downlink multiplexer input to the downlink multiplexer output.

13 more elements

A method, comprising:

obtaining, by a system comprising at least one processor, a terrestrial uplink communication signal comprising uplink packet data, from a user equipment configured for cellular communications;
preprocessing, by an edge compute device of the system, uplink data corresponding to the uplink packet data to obtain first preprocessed uplink packet data;
selecting, using a trained model executing in the edge compute device, between:
a Layer-1 physical interface (L1-PHY) uplink transcoder path that converts the first preprocessed uplink packet data to second preprocessed uplink packet data for a non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signal, and routes the second preprocessed packet data via the non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signal for uplink transmission to the satellite via a metasurface, or
a bypass path that bypasses the L1-PHY uplink transcoder path and routes the first preprocessed uplink packet data via the non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signal for uplink transmission to the satellite.

2 more elements

A device, comprising:

a Layer-1 physical interface (L1-PHY) transcoder device, the L1-PHY transcoder device comprising a downlink transcoder path, a downlink bypass path, an uplink transcoder path, and an uplink bypass path,
an edge compute device that:
performs data preprocessing on terrestrial uplink communication signals, obtained from a user equipment configured for cellular telecommunications, to be transmitted to a satellite via a metasurface, and
executes a trained selection model,
wherein the trained selection model is usable to select the uplink transcoder path to convert the terrestrial uplink communication signals from the user equipment, received by the L1-PHY transcoder device, to non-terrestrial uplink communication signals for uplink transmission to the satellite via the metasurface,
wherein the trained selection model is usable to select the uplink bypass path to route the terrestrial uplink communication signals from the user equipment as the non-terrestrial uplink communication signals for the uplink transmission to the satellite via the metasurface,
wherein the trained selection model is usable to select the downlink transcoder path to convert non-terrestrial downlink communication signals from the satellite, received by the L1-PHY transcoder device as redirected via the metasurface, to terrestrial downlink communication signals for downlink transmission to the user equipment, and
wherein the trained selection model is usable to select the downlink bypass path to route the non-terrestrial downlink communication signals from the satellite as the terrestrial downlink communication signals for the downlink transmission to the user equipment.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.