Communications architectures via UAV

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9621254-B2
Application number	US-201313778175-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 27, 2013
Priority date	Sep 21, 2012
Publication date	Apr 11, 2017
Grant date	Apr 11, 2017

Abstract

A communication system includes a transmitter segment at a source location inputting a plurality of input signals to be transmitted. The input signals are transformed to wavefront multiplexed signals (WFM signals), and the WFM signals are modulated into WFM waveforms. The WFM waveforms are transmitted through a segment of propagation to a receiver segment; wherein the segment of propagation includes a plurality of UAV based transmission channels among the WFM waveforms; wherein the WFM waveforms are transmitted over the transmission channels; wherein the receiver segment receives the WFM waveforms from the transmission channels. Demodulation is performed on the received WFM waveforms to convert the received WFM waveforms to received WFM signals individually. A wavefront de-multiplexing transform is performed on the received WFM signals to recover individual desired signals.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A communication system comprising:
a transmitter segment comprising:
a first processor configured to perform a wavefront multiplexing transform on a plurality of input signals and generate a plurality of wavefront multiplexed signals, each of the wavefront multiplexed signals comprising information associated with the input signals; and
a plurality of modulators coupled to the first processor, the modulators being configured to modulate the wavefront multiplexed signals and generate concurrently a plurality of transmit waveforms;

a propagation segment comprising one or more unmanned aerial vehicles, each of the one or more unmanned aerial vehicles being configured to receive one or more of the transmit waveforms from the transmitter segment via one or more back channels, each of the one or more back channels being assigned to one of the one or more unmanned aerial vehicles, each of the one or more unmanned aerial vehicles radiating the received transmit waveforms to a receiver segment via one or more foreground channels; and
the receiver segment comprising a plurality of receivers, each of the receivers being configured to receive the transmit waveforms from the one or more unmanned aerial vehicles, each of the receivers comprising:
a plurality of demodulators configured to perform demodulation on the transmit waveforms and generate a plurality of receive wavefront multiplexed signals; and
a second processor coupled to the demodulators, the second processor being configured to perform a wavefront de-multiplexing transform on the receive wavefront multiplexed signals and generate a plurality of output signals such that the output signals correspond to the input signals, respectively.

2. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the transmitter segment further comprises a frequency frontend unit configured to frequency-up-convert the transmit waveforms to a transmission frequency band of the one or more back channels, and wherein each of the receivers further comprises a frequency-down-converter configured to frequency-down-convert the received transmit waveforms to a base-band frequency.

3. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the transmitter segment is configured to frequency-translate the transmit waveforms into ones at a first common frequency slot to be transmitted to the one or more unmanned aerial vehicles, wherein the one or more unmanned aerial vehicles are configured to frequency-translate the transmit waveforms into ones at a second common frequency slot and amplify the transmit waveforms before radiating to the receiver segment, wherein the receiver segment is configured to frequency-translate the transmit waveforms into ones in a base-band frequency.

4. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the first processor is configured to perform the wavefront multiplexing transform on the input signals in a base-band frequency and in a digital format.

5. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the input signals is set to a ground signal (zero).

6. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of transmit WFM signals comprises a linear combination of the input signals.

7. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the receive wavefront multiplexed signals comprises a linear combination of the output signals.

8. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the transmitter segment further comprises a digital beam forming processor configured to convert the transmit waveforms into multiple element signals for multiple arrays of the one or more unmanned aerial vehicles.

9. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the transmitter segment is configured to frequency-translate said transmit WFM signals into ones in a transmission frequency band to be modulated by said modulators into said WFM waveforms, and said receiver segment is configured to frequency-translate said WFM waveforms into ones in a base band to be demodulated by said demodulators into said receive WFM signals.

10. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the input signals comprise digital signals.

11. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the transmitter segment is configured to frequency-translate said transmit WFM signals into ones at various frequency slots, and said receiver segment is configured to frequency-transform the transmit waveforms into ones in a base band frequency.

12. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) comprises multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) separately arranged in the air, wherein each of the receivers is configured to receive the transmit waveforms from the multiple unmanned aerial vehicles.

13. The communication system of claim 1 further comprising an optimization processor configured to measure a difference between one of the input signals and one of the output signals.

14. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein said first processor comprises a Butler Matrix to perform the wavefront multiplexing transform.

15. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein said transmitter segment comprises a digital beam forming processor configured to convert the transmit waveforms into multiple element signals for multiple arrays of said one or more unmanned aerial vehicles and a frequency division multiplexer configured to perform multiplexing on said element signals into a single signal stream to be uploaded by an antenna of said transmitter segment to one of said one or more unmanned aerial vehicles.

16. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein said one or more unmanned aerial vehicles provide multiple transmission channels multiplexed with various frequency slots for transmitting the transmit waveforms.

17. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more unmanned aerial vehicles provide multiple transmission channels multiplexed with various time slots for transmitting the transmit waveforms.

18. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more unmanned aerial vehicles provide multiple transmission channels multiplexed with various codes for transmitting the transmit waveforms.

19. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more unmanned aerial vehicles provide multiple transmission channels multiplexed with various frequency slots, time slots and codes for transmitting the transmit waveforms.

20. The communication system of claim 1 comprising a one-way communication system.

21. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the first processor performs a wavefront multiplexing transform on the input signals by using a Hadamard matrix.

22. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the transmitter segment comprises a time division demultiplexer, the time division demultiplexer receiving a data signal and generating at least two of the input signals.

23. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the receiver segment comprises a time division multiplexer, the time division multiplexer receiving at least two of the output signals and generating a data signal.

Assignees

• Chang Donald C D
• Spatial Digital Systems Inc

Inventors

• Chang Donald C D

Classifications

• H04B7/18506 Primary

  Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service · CPC title

• H04B1/0483

  Transmitters with multiple parallel paths · CPC title

• H04W4/90

  Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS] · CPC title

• H04B7/18513

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

• H04B7/18504 Primary

  Aircraft used as relay or high altitude atmospheric platform · CPC title