Geosynchronous Satellite Feeder Link Capacity via Multi-Band Spectrum
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional High Throughput Satellite (HTS) systems require a large number of expensive gateway sites to exhaust feeder link capacity, especially when using Ka-band alone, which is inefficient and costly.
Innovation Solution
The system employs the V/Q band in combination with Ka-band to reduce the number of satellite gateways by utilizing a larger frequency spectrum, enabling spatially multiplexed signals and reducing the need for multiple gateways through linear pre and post-processing at RF gateways, allowing for efficient communication within a geosynchronous orbit.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If Ka-band spectrum alone is used for feeder link communication, then the satellite capacity can be utilized, but the number of gateway sites required increases to more than 60, which is expensive in time, labor and management
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple frequency bands (Ka-band, V-band, and Q-band) into a unified feeder link communication system. By merging these bands, the system achieves higher aggregate spectrum availability (greater than 80 GHz, potentially greater than 150 GHz) which allows fewer gateways (less than 20 sites) to exhaust the satellite feeder link capacity, resolving the contradiction between capacity utilization and gateway proliferation
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from single-band (Ka-band only) to multi-band operation by adding spectral dimensions (V-band and Q-band). This dimensional expansion in frequency space enables the system to achieve the same or greater capacity with fewer spatial nodes (gateways), effectively trading frequency resource expansion for reduced infrastructure complexity
2Device complexity
If the number of gateway sites is reduced to less than 20, then operational costs decrease, but the feeder link capacity must be increased beyond what Ka-band alone can provide
Solution Approach 1:
The patent fundamentally changes the spectral parameter by introducing V-band (40-75 GHz) and Q-band (26.5-52 GHz) operations in addition to Ka-band. This parameter change in frequency allocation enables the system to achieve feeder link capacities greater than 80 GHz and potentially greater than 150 GHz, which mathematically allows reduction of gateway count to less than 20 sites while maintaining full capacity utilization
3Device complexity
If higher frequency spectrum (V/Q-band) is utilized, then the gateway count can be reduced, but interference management among gateways becomes more challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the available spectrum into distinct bands (Ka-band, V-band, Q-band) and allocates them to different feeder link channels. This segmentation in frequency space provides natural isolation between gateways, allowing multiple gateways to operate simultaneously with reduced mutual interference, thus enabling the reduction to less than 20 gateways while managing interference levels
Data Source
AI summary
A system to reduce a count of satellite gateways is disclosed. The system includes: a feeder link capacity of a satellite; a spectrum ranging from 26.5 GHz to 75 GHz; a gateway feeder link capacity that is an aggregate of capacities of channels defined in the spectrum; and RF gateways communicating with the satellite via the channels, wherein the count of the satellite gateways is less than or equal to a rounded-up integer of the feeder link capacity divided by the gateway feeder link capacity, and the satellite is a geosynchronous orbit satellite.