Apple Inc.

Matthew N Ettus

Shahram Talakoub

Ian Buckley

Carlo Di Nallo

Simone Paulotto

Sebastian Balint Seeber

Adam H Bily

Michael D Trela

Sebastian B Seeber

A communications system may include a satellite and user equipment (UE) devices. When the UE devices have uplink (UL) packets to transmit, each UE device may randomly select a time slot within a finite time window associated with a time reference of the satellite. The UE device may identify a path length between itself and the satellite and may generate a timing advance based on the path length, the time reference, and the time slot. The satellite may begin to receive the UL packets within the time window and may search received signals over the time window to identify the UL packets. The satellite may recover data payloads from the identified UL packets and may pass the recovered data payloads up a protocol stack. By limiting the search to the time window, the satellite may correctly distinguish the UL packets while using a minimal amount of processing resources.

Multiple user access channel

A communication terminal may include an array of antenna modules. Each module may include an array of radiators on a substrate and a radio-frequency lens overlapping the array. The lens may include a tapered base on the substrate and a curved portion on the tapered base. The tapered base and curved portions may be rotationally symmetric about a central axis of the lens. The curved portion may be hemispherical. The tapered base portion may be conical and may have a first radius at the hemispherical portion and a second radius that is less than the first radius at the substrate. At least one radiator in the array may be located beyond the first radius and within the second radius from the central axis. The lens may be formed from lattice having interleaved layers of dielectric segments separated by gaps to reduce the overall weight of the module.

Lens structure

A communication terminal may include control circuitry and an array of antenna modules. Each module may include radiators on a substrate, a lens overlapping the radiators, a transceiver chain, and switching circuitry. The control circuitry may control the switching circuitry to activate a set of one or more radiators in a given module. The control circuitry may control the transceiver chain in that module to convey signals at a selected phase using each of the active radiators. Each of the active radiators may convey the signals over signal beams oriented in different directions by the lens. The control circuitry may adjust the active radiators in each module and may adjust the selected phase for each of the modules to generate a combined signal beam in a desired direction. The combined signal beam may be generated using signals from the active radiators in two or more modules across the array.

Communication terminal

An electronic device may include a baseband processor and P antenna elements. The antenna elements may concurrently convey signals within M signal beams. The baseband processor may have a demultiplexer that receives a stream of M symbols. The processor may have M parallel data paths coupled between the demultiplexer and a beam former. The beam former may be coupled to amplifier circuitry over P parallel data paths. Inverse fast Fourier transformers (IFFTs) may be interposed on the M parallel data paths. A feedback path may be coupled between the M parallel data paths and the P parallel data paths. Crest factor reduction (CFR) circuitry may be interposed on the feedback path. The CFR circuitry may perform CFR operations on signals from the P parallel data paths iteratively and concurrently. This may minimize PAR in the system while supporting concurrent transmission of radio-frequency signals in multiple signal beams.

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Monte Sereno, CA, United States of America

Matthew N Ettus