Loading patent…
AssigneeHarris Corporation
InventorsAlan L. Polivka, Charles Zahm
Estimating the term…
A system architecture and communication methodology for significantly reducing the size of an aircraft antenna required to provide full broadcast quality video communications with an aircraft via a satellite communications link includes a combination of video bandwidth compression, spread spectrum waveform processing and an electronically steered, circular aperture phased array antenna, that is conformal with an airframe surface of the aircraft. The combination provides sufficient signal power to the aircraft, enables interference from other satellites to be rejected and maintains the power spectral density of the satellite's video transmission within FCC requirements. The polarization of the receive array is aligned with that of the incoming beam from the relay satellite by means of an error signal feed back path to control the steering weights of the array. Because the phased arrays are conformal, it is necessary to modify the phase shift settings produced by the antenna steering mechanism executed by the degree of departure of the conformal geometry of the array from a planar configuration. A coordinate transformation look-up table is coupled in the control feedback path from the antenna steering mechanism and the phase shift elements of the phased array.
A method of conducting video communications between a first site and a second site comprising the steps of:
A method of transmitting video communication signals from a first station by way of a satellite communication link to an airborne receiving stations comprising the steps of:
A method of transmitting video communication signals from an airborne transmitting station by way of a satellite communication link to a receiving station comprising the steps of:
A communication system for transmitting video communication signals over a satellite communication link from a first station to an airborne receiving station comprising:
A communication system for conducting video communications between a first site and a second site comprising:
For use with a communication system having a phased array antenna that is conformal with a non-planar surface, a method of controlling the operation of said phased array antenna such that its polarization response is effectively aligned with that of a signal received thereby, comprising adjusting respective weights of antenna elements of said array in accordance with the geometry of the non-linear surface over which the antenna elements of said phased array antenna are distributed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.