Resilient Virtual Ground Satellite Communication System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current satellite communication systems require costly and time-consuming development of geographically diverse, large-aperture ground stations for low-Earth-orbit satellite data recovery, making global, low-latency, high-data-rate coverage expensive and impractical for low-budget satellite missions.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a resilient virtual ground (RVG) multiple-access (MA) system using geographically dispersed, low-cost small-aperture ground terminals and signal-combining technology to recover downlink messages from multiple satellites, leveraging existing infrastructure and high-speed computing for efficient data aggregation and demodulation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If geographically diverse large-aperture ground stations are used for satellite data recovery, then data recovery reliability is improved, but system cost and implementation complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the ground station network into multiple distributed small-aperture terminals rather than using a single large-aperture station. Each terminal independently receives and processes satellite signals, and multiple terminals work together to recover data from different satellites, achieving both reliability and reduced complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses multiple copies of identical small-aperture ground terminals distributed geographically instead of one unique large-aperture station. These terminal copies can independently process signals from different satellites, providing redundancy and reliability while using standardized, lower-cost hardware designs
2Productivity
If multiple large-aperture ground stations are deployed for high-data-rate coverage, then data recovery capability is improved, but deployment cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the capabilities of multiple small-aperture terminals to achieve the data recovery performance of large-aperture stations. By merging the processing outputs from multiple low-cost terminals, the system recovers high-data-rate signals from multiple satellites simultaneously without the expense of deploying expensive large-aperture hardware
Solution Approach 2:
The ground terminals are designed with multi-functionality to handle signals from multiple different satellites simultaneously. Each terminal can process downlink messages from various satellites in the constellation, making the infrastructure universally applicable and eliminating the need for specialized expensive equipment for each satellite
3Ease of manufacture
If geographically dispersed ground terminals are used, then system cost is reduced, but signal recovery difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces signal-combining technology as an intermediary process that aggregates signals from multiple geographically dispersed terminals. This mediator combines the weak individual signals into a stronger composite signal that can be effectively processed and recovered, overcoming the difficulty of detecting signals from dispersed low-cost terminals
Data Source
AI summary
A resilient virtual ground multiple-access (RVG-MA) satellite communication system includes a number of ground receivers in communication with multiple satellites. The RVG-MA satellite communication system further includes a number of processing units in communication with the ground receivers. Each processing unit can recover a downlink signal from a target satellite. Each ground receiver includes a small-aperture antenna and receives downlink signals associated with multiple satellites, and the ground receivers are distributed over a large geographic area.