Signal terrestrial repeater having a master unit and a remote unit that is optically coupled to the master unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11296779-B2
Application number	US-201816039063-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 18, 2018
Priority date	Jul 18, 2017
Publication date	Apr 5, 2022
Grant date	Apr 5, 2022

Abstract

In an embodiment, a signal repeater includes a master unit and a remote unit that are optically coupled to one another by, e.g., an optical fiber. The master unit includes master-unit circuitry configured to receive an input electrical signal from a satellite-signal receive antenna, and to convert the input electrical signal into an optical signal. And the remote unit includes remote-unit circuitry configured to convert the optical signal into an intermediate electrical signal, to amplify the intermediate electrical signal to generate an output electrical signal, and to couple the output electrical signal to a retransmission antenna. Because an optical channel, such as an optical fiber, typically attenuates an optical signal significantly less per unit of distance than a coaxial cable attenuates an electrical signal, such a signal repeater allows a satellite receive antenna to be located at a significant distance from a retransmit antenna.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A signal repeater, comprising:
a master unit including master-unit circuitry configured
to receive an input electrical signal from a satellite-signal-receive antenna, and
to convert the input electrical signal into an optical signal; and

a remote unit including remote-unit circuitry configured
to convert the optical signal into an intermediate electrical signal,
to amplify the intermediate electrical signal to generate an output electrical signal,
to couple the output electrical signal to a retransmission antenna, and
to generate an optical feedback signal from the output electrical signal.

2. The signal repeater of claim 1 , further comprising an optical fiber configured to couple the optical signal from the master unit to the remote unit.

3. The signal repeater of claim 2 wherein the optical fiber is configured to attenuate the optical signal no more than approximately 0.5 decibels per kilometer.

4. The signal repeater of claim 1 wherein the master-unit circuitry is further configured to receive an input electrical signal having a frequency within a frequency band of approximately 2324 MHz to 2341.5 MHz.

5. The signal repeater of claim 1 wherein the master-unit circuitry is further configured:
to amplify the input electrical signal; and
to convert the amplified electrical signal into the optical signal.

6. The signal repeater of claim 1 wherein:
the input electrical signal is encoded according to a code; and
the master-unit circuitry is further configured
to encode the input electrical signal according to a different code; and
to convert the different-coded electrical signal into the optical signal.

7. The signal repeater of claim 1 wherein the remote-unit circuitry further includes:
an opto-electrical converter configured to convert the optical signal into the intermediate electrical signal;
an amplifier configured to amplify the intermediate electrical signal; and
a bandpass filter configured
to filter the amplified electrical signal to generate the output electrical signal, and
to couple the output electrical signal to a retransmission antenna.

8. The signal repeater of claim 1 wherein the remote-unit circuitry further includes:
an opto-electrical converter configured to convert the optical signal into the intermediate electrical signal;
an amplifier configured to amplify the intermediate electrical signal;
a bandpass filter configured to filter the amplified electrical signal; and
a signal divider configured
to generate, from the filtered electrical signal, output electrical signals, and
to couple each of the output electrical signals to a respective retransmission antenna.

9. A signal repeater, comprising:
a master unit including master-unit circuitry configured
to receive an input electrical signal from a satellite-signal-receive antenna, and
to convert the input electrical signal into an optical signal; and

a remote unit including remote-unit circuitry configured
to convert the optical signal into an intermediate electrical signal,
to amplify the intermediate electrical signal to generate an output electrical signal, and
to couple the output electrical signal to a retransmission antenna; and

wherein the remote-unit circuitry includes
an opto-electrical converter configured to convert the optical signal into the intermediate electrical signal,
an amplifier configured to amplify the intermediate electrical signal,
a bandpass filter configured to filter the amplified electrical signal,
a higher-power output port configured to be coupled to a retransmission antenna,
lower-power output ports each configured to be coupled to a respective retransmission antenna,
a signal divider configured
to generate, from the filtered electrical signal, output electrical signals, and
to couple each of the output electrical signals to a respective one of the lower-power output ports, and

a switch configured to selectively couple the filtered electrical signal to the higher-power output port or to the signal divider.

10. The signal repeater of claim 1 wherein the remote-unit circuitry further includes:
an opto-electrical converter configured to convert the optical signal into the intermediate electrical signal;
a signal divider configured to generate, from the intermediate electrical signal, multiple lower-power electrical signals;
amplifiers each configured to amplify a respective one of the lower-power electrical signals; and
bandpass filters each configured
to filter a respective one of the amplified electrical signals to generate a respective output electrical signal, and
to couple the respective output electrical signal to a respective retransmission antenna.

11. The signal repeater of claim 1 wherein:
the remote-unit circuitry is further configured
to generate an output electrical feedback signal from the output electrical signal,
to convert the output electrical feedback signal into the optical feedback signal, and
to provide the optical feedback signal to the master unit; and

the master-unit circuitry is further configured
to receive the optical feedback signal, and
to convert the optical feedback signal into an input electrical feedback signal.

12. The signal repeater of claim 1 wherein:
the remote-unit circuitry is further configured
to generate an output electrical feedback signal from the output electrical signal,
to convert the output electrical feedback signal to the optical feedback signal,
to provide the optical feedback signal to the master unit;
to receive an optical control signal from the master unit,
to convert the optical control signal to an input electrical control signal, and
to alter a configuration of the remote-unit circuitry in response to the input electrical control signal; and

the master-unit circuitry is further configured
to receive the optical feedback signal from the remote unit,
to convert the optical feedback signal to an input electrical feedback signal,
to provide the input electrical feedback signal to an analyzer circuit configured to generate an output electrical control signal in response to the input electrical feedback signal,
to convert the output electrical control signal into the optical control signal, and
to provide the optical control signal to the remote unit.

13. The signal repeater of claim 1 wherein:
the remote-unit circuitry further includes
an opto-electrical converter configured
to convert the optical signal into the intermediate electrical signal,
to convert output electrical feedback signals into respective optical feedback signals including the optical feedback signal,
to provide the optical feedback signals to the master unit, and
to convert optical control signals from master unit into respective input electrical control signals,

a signal divider configured to generate, from the intermediate electrical signal, multiple lower-power electrical signals,
amplifiers each having a respective configuration parameter and configured to amplify a respective one of the lower-power electrical signals,
bandpass filters each having a respective configuration parameter and configured
to filter a respective one of the amplified electrical signals to generate a respective output electrical signal, and
to couple the respective output electrical signal to a respective retransmission antenna,

feedback generators each configured to generate a respective one of the output electrical feedback signals from a respective one of the output electrical signals, and
at least one of the amplifiers and the bandpass filters configured to alter the confi

Assignees

• Andrew Wireless Systems Gmbh

Inventors

• Schmid Peter
• Eisenwinter Stefan
• Gunzner Peter

Classifications

• H04B7/18513 Primary

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

• H04B7/15514

  for shadowing compensation (for satellite mobile telephony service systems H04B7/18536) · CPC title

• H04B7/18519

  Operations control, administration or maintenance · CPC title

• H04B10/25

  Arrangements specific to fibre transmission · CPC title

• H04B10/25752

  Optical arrangements for wireless networks · CPC title