252 results about "Spot beam" patented technology

A radar system having orthogonal antenna apertures is disclosed. The invention further relates to an antenna system wherein the orthogonal apertures comprise at least one transmit aperture and at least one receive aperture. The cross-product of the transmit and receive apertures provides a narrow spot beam and resulting high resolution image. An embodiment of the invention discloses orthogonal linear arrays, comprising at least one electronically scanned transmit linear array and at least one electronically scanned receive linear array. The design of this orthogonal linear array system produces comparable performance, clutter and sidelobe structure at a fraction of the cost of conventional 2D filled array antenna systems.

A system and method of operation for efficiently reusing and / or sharing at least a portion of the frequency spectrum between a first satellite spot beam and a second satellite spot beam, and / or an underlay terrestrial network associated with a second satellite spot beam. The spectrum is efficiently reused and / or shared between respective spot beams and / or associated underlay terrestrial systems in a manner minimizes interference between the respective satellite and terrestrial systems.

A method and system for a plurality of airplanes in flight to receive from and send to a plurality of ground stations broadcast and communication signals through a single or a plurality of geostationary satellites, wherein at least the mobile link between said airplanes and said satellite, uplink or downlink, uses the high frequency radio waves at 17 GHz or higher, such as Ka-band. The fixed link between said satellite and said ground stations may use any radio frequencies below the frequencies used to communicate between the satellite and the aircraft. The lower frequencies tend to be less susceptible to rain attenuation and hence suitable for closing the fixed broadcast and communication link. Frequencies such as C-band or Ku-band, or even Ka-band, are applied between satellite and ground such that the available link margin is sufficient to overcome rain attenuation at said ground stations. Said satellite carries a plurality of transponders that may include a plurality of frequency converters to enable the conversion between different frequencies. Said satellite generates a plurality of spot beams, shaped or unshaped, which collectively cover the flight routes of said airplanes, preferably the geodesic path between two highly populated regions.

A telecommunications satellite having a phased array antenna, wherein the beam-forming function within the phased array is simplified by partitioning it into two stages, in which the sub-array stage relates to a fixed, or infrequently changed,set of overlapping sub-arrays and the main stage provides the main pattern reconfiguration, typically in the form of multiple reconfigurable spot beams within a defined coverage region. The key advantage lies in the significant reduction in number of second stage beam-forming control points (at which independent amplitude and phase is applied) when compared with a conventional phased array (where amplitude and phase control is applied for each element of the array). The sub-array stage beam-forming may be implemented in analogue technology. The main beam-former may be implemented in digital technology, where the key processing functions of A / D or D / A conversion, frequency (de)multiplexing and digital beam-forming all scale with the number of control points.

A satellite system for broadband communication with a plurality of remote locations is described. The satellite system comprises service spot beams from a satellite. Forward channels may be transported on carriers of the service spot beams. A plurality of forward sub-channels may be passed on the forward channels. A plurality of logical downstreams may correspond one-to-one with the plurality of forward sub-channels. The satellite system may further include a satellite modem with a channel bonding unit that combines a plurality of logical downstreams into a downstream group and processes the downstream group to provide information to customer premises equipment.

A method and system are presented for providing satellite communications coverage for a geographical area involving operating a plurality of gateways including a first gateway and a second gateway, wherein the first gateway is configured to utilize at least one first spot beam associated with at least one first coverage area within the geographic area to provide relayed satellite communications to a plurality of first subscriber terminals located in the at least one first coverage area, wherein the second gateway is configured to utilize at least one second spot beam associated with at least one second coverage area within the geographic area to provide relayed satellite communications to a plurality of second subscriber terminals located in the at least one second coverage area, and upon a failure condition associated with the at least one first spot beam, expanding the at least one second coverage area to include a portion of the at least one first coverage area, to provide relayed satellite communications to at least some of the first subscriber terminals without utilizing the at least one first spot beam.