University of California

The Directv Group, Inc.

Other

Air Fiber, Inc.

Anthony Acampora

Stanislav I Ionov

George C Valley

Joseph Soma Reddy

Scott Harris Bloom

Hossein H Izadpanah

James E Dunn

A radio link management system for a home or office substantially (i) an ad hoc network of agents wirelessly communicating among themselves, while (iii) clients wirelessly communicate with proximate agents. Control of the network may be centralized as network controller integrated with an agent, or may be distributed upon the network of agents. Some agent or agents, which may include an agent that is also the network controller, typically serves as a gateway device which connects to a worldwide communications network external to the home or office, normally by fiber or by wire. Each agent is most commonly a small radio transceiver plus logic and power supply that mounts upon a wall and plugs directly into an AC power socket. Agents wirelessly communicate among themselves and with the controller&#x2014;which may be centralized or distributed&#x2014;in a bandwidth-efficient mode since prime power is not an issue. Each client, which is most commonly a battery-powered user device, wirelessly radio communicates with one or more proximately-located agents. Consistent with overall demand for the radio resource, parameters for radio communication are allocated ad hoc in a manner which is (a) client-dependent, and which (b) uses the least power from the battery-powered client. The agents establish an ad-hoc network among themselves, with routing among and between the agents being both multi-hop and 'minimum hop' to conserve bandwidth. Accordingly both power and bandwidth are conserved, each as and where required and desired.

Power-grid-powered agents for wireless communication systems

Handoff of (i) a mobile wirelessly communicating device&#x2014;a mobile&#x2014;between (ii) as plurality of stationary base stations within cells within a domain of (iii) a stationary gateway router all within (iv) a communications network based on the Internet Protocol (IP) is without interchange of control and responsive to the mobile, only. The gateway router assigns to the mobile at a time before the handoff IP addresses suitable for the mobile to connect to the gateway router through all the plurality of base stations of the domain. Unilaterally deriving a handoff decision to switch base stations, the mobile directs its wireless communications link to a new base station where signal level registration is performed. Responsive to a link layer trigger at the new base station, the gateway router is informed of the handoff, and both the router and the mobile independently construct the mobile's new IP address.

Mobility management in wireless internet protocol networks

A satellite constellation has a plurality of network satellites that form a network. A gateway satellite is disposed adjacent to the network. The gateway satellites receive an optical signal from the network and converts the signal to an electrical signal. The gateway satellite has a sorter and a reshaping circuit for reshaping the electrical signal to form a reshaped signal. The electrical signal is converted back to an optical signal corresponding to the reshaped signal. The optical signal corresponding to the reshaped signal has reduced noise in comparison to the input optical signal. The optical signal is then retransmitted to another satellite.

Global gateway architecture for interconnecting regional satellites into a communication network

Adaptive local wireless communication system

A satellite constellation has a plurality of satellites. Each of the satellites has an RF ground link for communicating with a ground station and an optical link for communication with at least one of the plurality of satellites. Each of the satellites has a reconfigurable optical transmitter for sending and receiving data streams. Each reconfigurable optical transmitter has a first optical carrier associated therewith and a reconfigurable optical receiver. The plurality of satellites is arranged to have a first subset of satellites. The first subset of satellites is configured to communicate. The plurality of satellites is reconfigured to have a second subset of satellites having at least one different satellites than that of said first subset. The second subset supercedes the first subset. The second subset of satellites is configured to communicate. Various subset around the globe may form local area networks. The local area networks are preferably optically coupled to form a wide area network.

Architecture for an optical satellite communication network

Handoff of (i) a mobile wirelessly communicating device&#x2014;a mobile&#x2014;between (ii) a plurality of stationary base stations within cells within a domain of (iii) a stationary gateway router all within (iv) a communications network based on the Internet Protocol (IP) is without interchange of control, and responsive to the mobile, only. The gateway router assigns to the mobile at a time before the handoff IP addresses suitable for the mobile to connect to the gateway router through all the plurality of base stations of the domain. Unilaterally deriving a handoff decision to switch base stations, the mobile directs its wireless communications link to a new base station where signal level registration is performed. Responsive to a link layer trigger at the new base station, the gateway router is informed of the handoff, and both the router and the mobile independently construct the mobile's new IP address. Handoff latency is typically 40 ms.

Power-  and bandwidth-adaptive in-home wireless communications system with power-grid-powered agents and battery-powered clients

A system and method for producing an eye safe laser communication system. The system and method detects an interfering object in the optical path and cuts off or reduces the power in the communication beam to safe levels. In one embodiment, a second laser diode transmitter and receiver is installed in each network node. The laser transmitter is pointed at a corresponding network node and the pulses travel in parallel with the communication beam. The pulses are reflected back to the transmitting node where they are detected. Their flight time is measured. When an interfering object is present, in one scenario, the pulses bounce of the interfering object and return to the receiver in the transmitting node, resulting in a reduced flight time. This reduced flight time is interpreted as an interfering object and the beam is shut down or reduced to a safe level. In a second scenario, the interfering object absorbs the detection beam. In another embodiment, a CCD camera is used to capture a reflection from an object in the path of the communication link. In this embodiment the CCD has an overlapping field of view with the communication transceiver's transmit laser. The laser's transmission beam forms a baseline pattern on the CCD. Any pixel to pixel variation from the baseline pattern indicates an interference, thus triggering the system to shut down or reduce the power of the communication link. Another embodiment uses retroreflection of the human eye to detect interference by the human eye and an optical magnification device. In this embodiment, a CCD is used to detect signals bent back by retroreflection of the human eye. When such a signal is detected, the link is immediately shut down. Another embodiment utilizes the communication link itself and a detector in the receiver to detect instantaneous power drops caused by an interfering object. When an interfering object is detected, the system shuts down or reduces the power of the communication beam to an eye safe level.

System and method for providing an eye safe laser communication system

Diverse communication terminals attach via broadband radio to a communications network at any of typically three hierarchical cell sizes increasing from, typically, a single building to a city to a region. Almost all telecommunications traffic transpires, however, within lowest-level &ldquo;picocells,&rdquo; to and from low cost &ldquo;base stations,&rdquo; that have typically one radio transceiver,, four optical transceivers,, an ATM switch,and an ATM controller,. Each local &ldquo;base station,&rdquo; is interconnected to a regional &ldquo;end office switch,&rdquo;, where is realized connection to a worldwide wire/fiber line communications backbone,, upon a multi-hop mesh network,via short highly-focused free-space broadband directional optical links,. By this free-space wireless broadband access the need for new broadband access cabling the &ldquo;last mile&rdquo; to subscriber/users is totally surmounted. Subscriber service is of the order of 20 Mb/s peak rate, and 10 Mb/s average rate.

Hybrid universal broadband telecommunications using small radio cells interconnected by free-space optical links

Diverse communication terminals attach via broadband radio to a communications network at any of typically three hierarchical cell sizes increasing from, typically, a single building to a city to a region. Almost all telecommunications traffic transpires, however, within lowest-level 'picocells 1' to and from low cost 'base stations 11' that have typically one radio transceiver 111, four optical transceivers 112, an ATM switch 113 and an ATM controller 114. Each local 'base station 11' is interconnected to a regional 'end office switch 12', where is realized connection to a worldwide wire/fiber line communications backbone 4, upon a multi-hop mesh network 100 via short highly-focused free-space broadband directional optical links 10. By this free-space wireless broadband access the need for new broadband access cabling the 'last mile' to subscriber/users is totally surmounted. Subscriber service is of the order of 20 Mb/s peak rate, and 10 Mb/s average rate.

Growing community of inventors

La Jolla, CA, United States of America

Anthony Acampora