Systems, methods and apparatus for assembling a transport stream from satellite transponder signals

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9654205-B1
Application number	US-201514962627-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 8, 2015
Priority date	Dec 8, 2015
Publication date	May 16, 2017
Grant date	May 16, 2017

Abstract

Various embodiments of systems, apparatus, and methods are described for assembling at least one transport stream from satellite transponder signals. In one example, the method includes capturing at least one satellite feed, the at least one satellite feed including a plurality of transponder signals; demodulating each of the plurality of transponder signals, each demodulated transponder signal corresponding to a transport stream including a plurality of input streams; parsing one or more selected streams from the plurality of input streams; assembling at least one new transport stream from the one or more selected streams; modulating the at least one new transport stream to generate at least one new transponder signal; adding the at least one new transponder signal to a channel stack; and transmitting the channel stack to a receiving device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
capturing at least one satellite feed, the at least one satellite feed comprising a plurality of transponder signals;
demodulating each of the plurality of transponder signals, each demodulated transponder signal corresponding to a transport stream comprising a plurality of input streams;
parsing one or more selected streams from the plurality of input streams;
assembling at least one new transport stream from the one or more selected streams;
modulating the at least one new transport stream to generate at least one new transponder signal;
adding the at least one new transponder signal to a channel stack;
transmitting the channel stack to a receiving device;
parsing informational and control data from the plurality of input streams; and
assembling at least one informational transport stream from the informational and control data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of transponder signals are from a plurality of satellite feeds.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
assembling a plurality of new transport streams from the one or more selected streams, wherein the number of new transport streams exceeds the number of transponder signals from a single satellite feed.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the number of new transport streams is associated with a tuning capability of the receiving device.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
selecting the one or more selected streams based on user preferences, bandwidth available in a coaxial feed, capabilities of the receiving device, or a combination thereof.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the informational and control data includes one or more of entitlement management message/entitlement control message (EMM/ECM) information, network information table/network address translation (NIT/NAT) information, program acquisition table/program map table (PAT/PMT) information, transponder information, LNBF information, and signal quality information.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the channel stack is transmitted to the receiving device as a coaxial feed.

8. A stream packing apparatus, comprising:
a capture module for capturing at least one satellite feed, the at least one satellite feed comprising a plurality of transponder signals;
a demodulator for demodulating each of the plurality of transponder signals, each demodulated transponder signal corresponding to a transport stream comprising a plurality of input streams;
a parser for parsing one or more desired streams from the plurality of input streams, wherein the parser parses informational and control data from the plurality of input streams;
a stream assembler for assembling at least one new transport stream from the one or more desired streams, wherein the stream assembler assembles at least one informational transport stream from the informational and control data;
a radio frequency (RF) modulator for modulating the at least one new transport stream to generate at least one new transponder signal;
a RF combiner for adding the at least one new transponder signal to a channel stack; and
a transmitter for transmitting the channel stack to a receiving device.

9. The stream packing apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of transponder signals are from a plurality of satellite feeds.

10. The stream packing apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the stream assembler assembles a plurality of new transport streams from the one or more selected streams, and wherein the number of new transport streams exceeds the number of transponder signals from a single satellite feed.

11. The stream packing apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the number of new transport streams is associated with a tuning capability of the receiving device.

12. The stream packing apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the one or more selected streams are selected based on user preferences, bandwidth available in a coaxial feed, capabilities of the receiving device, or a combination thereof.

13. The stream packing apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the informational and control data includes one or more of entitlement management message/entitlement control message (EMM/ECM) information, network information table/network address translation (NIT/NAT) information, program acquisition table/program map table (PAT/PMT) information, transponder information, LNBF information, and signal quality information.

14. The stream packing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the transmitter transmits the channel stack to the receiving device as a coaxial feed.

15. A satellite communication system, comprising:
a receiving antenna including at least one low-noise frequency block downconverter with integrated feedhorn (LNBF);
a receiving device in communication with the receiving antenna; and
a stream packer intermediate the receiving antenna and the receiving device, the stream packer comprising;
a capture module for capturing at least one satellite feed from the at least one LNBF, the at least one satellite feed comprising a plurality of transponder signals;
a demodulator for demodulating each of the plurality of transponder signals, each demodulated transponder signal corresponding to a transport stream comprising a plurality of input streams;
a parser for parsing one or more desired streams from the plurality of input streams, wherein the parser parses informational and control data from the plurality of input streams;
a stream assembler for assembling at least one new transport stream from the one or more desired streams, wherein the stream assembler assembles at least one informational transport stream from the informational and control data;
a radio frequency (RF) modulator for modulating the at least one new transport stream to generate at least one new transponder signal;
a RF combiner for adding the at least one new transponder signal to a channel stack; and
a transmitter for transmitting the channel stack to the receiving device.

16. The satellite communication system of claim 15 , wherein the plurality of transponder signals are from a plurality of satellite feeds.

17. The satellite communication system of claim 16 , wherein the stream assembler assembles a plurality of new transport streams from the one or more selected streams, and wherein the number of new transport streams exceeds the number of transponder signals from a single satellite feed.

Assignees

• Echostar Technologies Llc
• Echostar Technologies Llc

Inventors

• Langer Paul

Classifications

• H04W84/06

  Airborne or Satellite Networks (space-based or airborne stations H04B7/185) · CPC title

• H04B7/1858 Primary

  Arrangements for data transmission on the physical system, i.e. for data bit transmission between network components · CPC title

• H04N21/2402

  Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available (traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876) · CPC title

• H04H20/10

  Arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or the distribution · CPC title

• H04N21/25891

  being end-user preferences (retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18) · CPC title