US 2026/0095837 A1Published application

Model-controlled layer-1 physical interface transcoder to support hybrid terrestrial and non-terrestrial ground and space mesh network

AssigneeDell Products L.P.

InventorsMichael J. Healy, Tejinder Singh, Navjot Kaur Khaira

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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 interface satellites. 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. For direct-to-device communications, transcoder conversion is bypassed. Multiplexers switch between the transcoder conversion and bypass states, as controlled by artificial intelligence (AI) models/software modules. AI models can track the satellites, control the RIS operation, and control the multiplexer states.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system, comprising:

a metasurface;
and
a device comprising a controller, a first multiplexer and a second multiplexer,
wherein the device obtains terrestrial uplink communication signals from a user equipment configured for cellular telecommunications,
wherein the controller controls the first multiplexer to select, as an uplink output path, between:
a first Layer-1 physical interface (L1-PHY) uplink transcoder path that converts the terrestrial uplink communication signals to non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signals, and routes the non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signals for uplink transmission to the satellite via the metasurface, or
a first bypass path that bypasses the first L1-PHY uplink transcoder path and routes the terrestrial uplink communication signals for uplink transmission to the satellite via the metasurface,
wherein the controller obtains non-terrestrial downlink communication signals from the satellite as redirected by the metasurface, and
wherein the controller controls the second multiplexer to select, as a downlink output path, between:
a second L1-PHY downlink transcoder path that converts the non-terrestrial downlink communication signals to terrestrial downlink communication signals, and routes the terrestrial downlink satellite communication signals for downlink transmission to the user equipment, or
a second bypass path that bypasses the second L1-PHY downlink transcoder path and routes the non-terrestrial downlink communication signals for downlink transmission to the user equipment.

8 more elements

A method, comprising:

obtaining, by a system comprising at least one processor, a terrestrial uplink communication signal comprising first uplink packet data, from a user equipment configured for cellular communications;
selecting, using a trained model of the system, between:
a Layer-1 physical interface (L1-PHY) uplink transcoder path that converts the first uplink packet data to second uplink packet data for a non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signal, and routes the second 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 uplink packet data via the non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signal for uplink transmission to the satellite.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.