Viasat, Inc.

Scientific-atlanta, Inc.

David Hancharik

Donald Lawson Runyon

David W Corman

Craig A Miller

Parker A Robinson

Kenneth V Buer

Peter S Wyckoff

David D Greenidge

Richard VanderMeulen

Richard A Vandermeulen

Methods, systems, and devices for co-located satellites with ground based processing are described. A set of co-located satellites may be configured to collect a set of return link signal components, where each co-located satellite includes a first payload configured to receive a respective return link signal component including one or more return link signal transmitted from one or more terminals and a second payload configured to transmit a representation of the respective return link signal component. One or more ground stations may be configured to receive the representations of the respective return link signal components. A central processor may be configured to apply a set of beamforming coefficients to the representations of the respective return link signal components received by the one or more ground stations to obtain one or more return link beam signals corresponding to one or more return link beams from the set of co-located satellites.

Co-located satellites with ground based processing

A multi-static synthetic aperture radar using beamformed illumination beams and multiple collection satellites is described. An illumination satellite may be in first orbit and multiple collection satellites may be in a second orbit. The illumination satellite may transmit beam signals (e.g., communication signals carrying modulated data to user terminals) from an antenna array to different beam coverage areas according to a beamforming matrix. Each of the collection satellites may receive reflections of the beam signals. The reflected signals received at the collection satellites may be processed according to the beam signals and beamforming matrix used to transmit the beam signals to obtain an image of a geographical area. In some cases, the collection satellites may relay the received signals for processing via the illumination satellite.

Multi-static synthetic aperture radar using low earth orbit collection

Methods, systems, and devices for past event signal tracking are described. In some examples, a system may receive feed element signals corresponding to a set of feed elements of an antenna. To support a primary or real-time mission, the system may process the feed element signals according to a first beamforming configuration to generate spot beam signals, which may include communications scheduled for respective spot beams. To support a retroactive or searching mission, the system may also store the feed element signals for some duration. Based on a determination to search for a target signal from a target location within a coverage area of the antenna, the system may process the stored feed element signals according to a second beamforming configuration to generate a target spot beam signal corresponding to the target location, and evaluate the target spot beam signal for a presence of the target signal.

Past event signal tracking

A system for communications may include an antenna array, where an inter-element spacing of antennas of the antenna array may be different across the antenna array; antenna managers that are coupled with respective antennas and configured to transmit and receive ranging signals used to measure parameters representative of distances between a respective antenna and the other antennas; a calibration unit that determines positions of the antennas based on the measured parameters and positions of reference antennas; and a communications manager that communicates with a terminal according to beam coefficients determined for the antenna array based on the determined positions of the antennas.

Sparse antenna array calibration

In an exemplary embodiment, a phased array antenna comprises a bidirectional antenna polarizer and is configured for bidirectional operation. The bidirectional antenna polarizer may combine active implementations of power splitters, power combiners, and phase shifters. Furthermore, in another exemplary embodiment a bidirectional antenna polarizer has extensive system flexibility and field reconfigurability. In yet another exemplary embodiment, the bidirectional phased array antenna operates in 'radar-like' applications where the transmit and receive functions operate in half-duplex fashion. Furthermore, in exemplary embodiments, the phased array antenna is configured to operate over multiple frequency bands and/or multiple polarizations.

Half-duplex phased array antenna system

A communication system for communicating low latency data in a fading channel environment using a data structure having data frames modulated on a subcarrier signal and on a commercial radio channel bandwidth. Low latency data is updated relatively rapidly at the low latency data generator. Because of this constant changing of low latency data at the point of generation in the transmitter end, the present invention communicates low latency data from the transmitter end to the receiver end of the communication system with relatively low delay. This communication system encodes and decodes low latency data using a single block encoding/decoding scheme. Such an encoding/decoding scheme introduces relatively less delay during the encoding/decoding processes while ensuring satisfactory data integrity for data communication in a fading channel environment. Using such an encoding/decoding scheme leads to more currently generated low latency data transmission at the transmitter end and in relatively less time for the decoding process with the decoder structure being more simple at the receiver end.

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Norcross, GA, United States of America

David Hancharik