Combiner for use in a satellite communication system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10855362-B2
Application number	US-201916723586-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2019
Priority date	Dec 28, 2018
Publication date	Dec 1, 2020
Grant date	Dec 1, 2020

Abstract

A combining apparatus for use in a satellite communication system and a method for using the same. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises: a plurality of antennas that each have a transmit aperture and a receive aperture and are operable to receive correlated signals from a satellite, wherein the receive aperture is operable to receive one of the signals from the satellite and determine its signal quality; a combiner communicably coupled to the plurality of antennas to combine multiple signals received from the plurality of antennas into one signal, wherein the combiner is operable to determine which signals received by the plurality of antennas are to be combined into the one signal based, at least in part, on at least one signal quality metric regarding the signals, the at least one signal quality metric being received from one or more tracking receivers external to the combiner; and a modem communicably coupled to receive the one signal from the combiner, wherein the modem is operable to send information to the plurality of antennas via the combiner as if only a single antenna is coupled to the combiner and the combiner is operable to aggregate information for the modem received from antennas in the plurality of antennas as if one single antenna provided the information to the combiner.

First claim

We claim:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a plurality of antennas that each have a transmit aperture and a receive aperture and are operable to receive correlated signals from a satellite, wherein the receive aperture is operable to receive one of the signals from the satellite and determine its signal quality;
a combiner communicably coupled to the plurality of antennas to combine multiple signals received from the plurality of antennas into one signal, wherein the combiner is operable to determine which signals received by the plurality of antennas are to be combined into the one signal based, at least in part, on at least one signal quality metric regarding the signals, the at least one signal quality metric being received from one or more tracking receivers external to the combiner; and
a modem communicably coupled to receive the one signal from the combiner, wherein the modem is operable to send information to the plurality of antennas via the combiner as if only a single antenna is coupled to the combiner and the combiner is operable to aggregate information for the modem received from antennas in the plurality of antennas as if one single antenna provided the information to the combiner, thereby enabling the combiner to present the plurality of antennas as the single antenna and the modem to communicate via the combiner as if controlling one single antenna.

2. The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein each of the one or more tracking receivers are part of a distinct one of the plurality of antennas.

3. The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the combiner is operable to select signals received from the plurality of antennas for combining based on a control signal received from each of the plurality of antennas.

4. The apparatus defined in claim 3 wherein the control signal comprises a signal indicating whether the antenna has a physical layer lock with the satellite.

5. The apparatus defined in claim 4 wherein, responsive to receiving the control signal indicating one antenna of the plurality antennas does not have physical layer lock with the satellite, the combiner does not combine the signal from the one antenna with one or more signals received from the other antennas, and subsequently upon receiving the control signal indicating one antenna of the plurality antennas has physical layer lock with the satellite, then the combiner dynamically selecting the signal from the one antenna for combining with one or more signals received from the other antennas.

6. The apparatus defined in claim 3 wherein the combiner is operable to select signals received from the plurality of antennas for combining based on a control signal for each signal indicative of whether the signal is to be combined.

7. The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the combiner is operable to obtain signal metrics from the antennas on predetermined regular intervals related to antenna frame rate of the plurality of antennas.

8. The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the combiner is operable to combine the signals by coherently summing the signals using Maximal Ratio combining, equal gain combining, switched combining, or selection combining.

9. The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the combiner is communicably coupled to the modem using a first point-to-point communication protocol and to each antenna in the plurality of antennas using a second point-to-point communication protocol.

10. The apparatus defined in claim 7 wherein at least one of the first and second point-to-point communication protocols comprises OpenAMIP®.

11. The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the combiner uses binary or text messages to communicate with the antennas on a continuous basis to obtain one or more antenna metrics from antennas in the plurality of antennas.

12. The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the combiner aggregates search count information from the plurality of antennas and sends the aggregated search count information to the modem.

13. The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the signal quality comprises Es/N0 information regarding the signal received by the antenna.

14. The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the modem provides a single modem connection to a network for the plurality of antennas.

15. The apparatus defined in claim 14 wherein the network is the Internet.

16. The apparatus defined in claim 1 wherein the combiner is coupled to the plurality of antennas and the modem via both RF cables and a network cable, and wherein the network cable comprises an Ethernet cable for an Ethernet communication path between the plurality of antennas, the combiner and the modem.

17. A method comprising:
sending signals received by a plurality of antennas that each have a transmit aperture and a receive aperture from a satellite;
determining, by each antenna of the plurality of antennas, signal quality for its respective received signal;
combining, by a combiner coupled to the plurality of antennas, multiple signals received from the plurality of antennas into one signal, including determining which signals received by the plurality of antennas are to be combined into the one signal based, at least in part, on at least one signal quality metric regarding the signals, the at least one signal quality metric received from one or more tracking receivers external to the combiner; and
sending the one signal from the combiner to a modem, and further comprising
sending, by the modem, information to the combiner for the plurality of antennas as if the plurality of antennas are only a single antenna, and aggregating, by the combiner, information for the modem received from antennas in the plurality of antennas as if the single antenna provided the information to the combiner.

18. The method defined in claim 17 further comprising selecting, by the combiner, signals received from the plurality of antennas for combining based on a control signal received from each of the plurality of antennas.

19. The method defined in claim 18 wherein the control signal comprises a signal indicating whether the antenna has a physical layer lock with the satellite.

20. The method defined in claim 19 wherein, responsive to receiving the control signal indicating one antenna of the plurality antennas does not have physical layer lock with the satellite, excluding the signal from the one antenna from combining with one or more signals received from the other antennas, and subsequently upon receiving the control signal indicating one antenna of the plurality antennas has physical layer lock with the satellite, then the combiner dynamically selecting the signal from the one antenna for combining with one or more signals received from the other antennas.

21. The method defined in claim 17 further comprising obtaining, by the combiner, signal metrics from the antennas on predetermined regular intervals related to antenna frame rate of the plurality of antennas.

22. The method defined in claim 17 wherein combining the signals comprises coherently summing the signals using Maximal Ratio combining, equal gain combining, switched combining, or selection combining.

23. A system comprising:
two or more of the apparatus defined in claim 1 ; and
a combiner coupled in a cascaded arrangement with at least one other combiner of the two or more apparatuses.

Assignees

• Kymeta Corp

Inventors

• Preston Shawn
• Bialke Nathan
• Smoot Maxwell
• Kreeger Michael
• Schwager Michael
• Braswell John
• Nebel John
• Wanka Andreas
• Radko Ron
• Borchers Steven C
• Swaminathan Raj
• Ziuchkovski Steven Michael
• Hultman Eric Bjorn
• Subhadramma Lekshmi Priya Ravindran
• Chang Daeup
• Makhoul Serge
• Kleinosowski Kevin
• Schnedler Alex
• Taylor Joseph

Classifications

• H04B2001/0491

  with frequency synthesizers, frequency converters or modulators · CPC title

• H04B1/40 Primary

  Circuits · CPC title

• H04B1/18

  Input circuits, e.g. for coupling to an antenna or a transmission line (coupling networks between antennas or lines and receivers independent of the nature of the receiver H03H) · CPC title

• H04B7/18513 Primary

  Transmission in a satellite or space-based system · CPC title

• H04B7/0885 Primary

  with combination · CPC title