Satellite communications systems and methods with distributed and/or centralized architecture including ground-based beam forming
AssigneeATC Technologies, LLC
InventorPeter D. Karabinis
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A space-based component (SBC) of a communications system includes a service link subsystem including a plurality of service link antenna elements configured to provide service links with radioterminals and a feeder link subsystem configured to provide respective feeder links to/from respective processing facilities. The SBC further includes a channelizer configured to map different spectral components of a signal received at the SBC via a service link antenna element to different feeder links.
Claims25
A space-based component (SBC) of a communications system, the SBC comprising:
- a plurality of service link antenna elements configured to transmit/receive information to/from radioterminals;
- a plurality of feeder links each providing information to/from a respective processing facility;
- and a
- channelizer configured to map different spectral components of a service link signal received at the SBC via a service link antenna element to different feeder links of the plurality of feeder links and/or to map different spectral components of a feeder link signal received at the SBC via a feeder link to different service link antenna elements;
- wherein the plurality of service link antenna elements comprises a first group of service link antenna elements corresponding to a first service region of the SBC and a second group of service link antenna elements corresponding to a second service region of the SBC, and wherein the channelizer is configured to map different spectral components of a service link signal received at the SBC by a service link antenna element of the first group of service link antenna elements to different feeder links of a first group of feeder links and to map different spectral components of a service link signal received at the SBC by a service link antenna element of the second group of service link antenna elements to different feeder links of a second group of feeder links.
A method of operating a communications system, the method comprising:
- mapping different spectral components of a service link signal received at a space-based component (SBC) of the communications system via a service link antenna element of the SBC to different feeder links between the SBC and respective processing facilities;
- wherein the SBC comprises a plurality of service link antenna elements comprising a first group of service link antenna elements corresponding to a first service region and a second group of service link antenna elements corresponding to a second service region, and wherein mapping different spectral components of a service link signal received at a space-based component (SBC) of the communications system via a service link antenna element of the SBC to different feeder links between the SBC and respective processing facilities comprises mapping different spectral components of a service link signal received at a service link antenna element of the first group of service link antenna elements to different feeder links of a first group of the feeder links and mapping different spectral components of a service link signal received at a service link antenna element of the second group of service link antenna elements to different feeder links of a second group of the feeder links.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.