Hughes Network Systems, LLC

Claircom Communications Group, Inc.

Hughes Aircraft Company

At&t Wireless Services, Inc.

Walter Robert Kepley, Iii

Richard A Shields, Jr

Dana J Greer

Yezdi F Antia

David Alan Roos

Minheng Shan

Kumudchandra Patel

Daniel Raymond Wendling

Allan B Lamkin

Yash Vasavada

Yogesh Sethi

Prabhat K Gupta

Nimesh Ambeskar

Hanhui Zhang

J Mark Steber

Dan Hantz

John Dennis Kenyon

Ying Liu

Richard M Gardner

Gregory J Capone

Matthew Mehdi Mohebbi

Kumudchandra Shantilal Patel

Methods and apparatuses for enhancing flatness of frequency response of couplings of radio frequency (RF) ports in an RF switch matrix. Techniques include determining a second RF port has been selected to be coupled to a first RF port via a coupling, obtaining an indication of a frequency or frequencies to be carried via the coupling, determining an amount of attenuation or amplification for the coupling for the frequency or frequencies, and adjusting attenuation or amplification applied to the coupling according to the determined amount attenuation or amplification.

Gain/flatness enhancement for RF switch matrix

An uplink power control system and a machine-implemented method for determining clear sky and adjusting uplink power are provided. A receiving station, which may be a satellite terminal or a satellite gateway, receives a reference signal from a satellite. The reference signal may be sampled over a sampling time period in order to compute a filtered short-term average downlink SINR. A filtered long-term average downlink SINR may be adjusted toward the filtered short-term average downlink SINR using either a first time constant or second time constant, based on a relationship between the filtered long-term average downlink SINR and the filtered short-term average downlink SINR. In some implementations, the second time constant is less than the first time constant.

Clear sky determination in uplink power control using dual time constants

A method including determining that a first radio frequency (RF) port has been selected to be coupled via an M by N RF switch matrix to a second RF port, wherein the M by N radio frequency (RF) switch matrix includes M first-side RF ports and N second-side RF ports, the first RF port is included in the M first-side RF ports, the second RF port is included in the N second-side RF ports, M is at least 2 and N is at least 2, and each of the first-side RF ports may be selectively coupled to and uncoupled from at least one of two or more of the second-side RF ports, such that RF signals are carried between selectively coupled RF ports; obtaining a first indicator indicating a frequency, frequency range, channel, or band for an RF signal to be carried via the second RF port while coupled to the first RF port; obtaining, in response to the determination that the first RF port has been selected to be coupled to the second RF port, a first adjustment value based on the first indicator, the first RF port, and the second RF port; and causing a first amplitude adjustment device configured to attenuate and/or amplify an RF signal as it passes through the first RF port or the second RF port with a selectable amount of attenuation and/or amplification to select a first amount of attenuation and/or amplification determined based on the first adjustment value.

A method and a satellite gateway for minimizing an impact of a noise floor variation in a spot beam satellite system. A demodulator processes digitized signals from multiple channels. Digitized signals are automatically gain controlled by respective automatic gain control components associated with respective channels. Automatic gain controlled digitized signals are downconverted and provided to a burst processor. The burst processor processes each downconverted signal and provides, with respect to each downconverted signal, an automatic gain control estimate, a code rate, and an inroute number to a processor component. The processor component determines an average automatic gain control value for each inroute, provides automatic gain control references to the respective automatic gain control components, and periodically sends noise map information to satellite terminals served by the satellite gateway. In some embodiments, the automatic gain control values are biased according to corresponding code rates.

Inroute automatic gain control detection of outroute interference

A method and a satellite terminal are provided. The satellite terminal may range over multiple frequencies and may receive, from a satellite gateway, a signal quality indicator with respect to each of the ranged multiple frequencies. Noise and interference for a corresponding frequency are estimated based on at least one of the received signal quality indicators for the corresponding frequency. Path loss is estimated based on multiple received signal quality indicators, each of which is received in response to the satellite terminal transmitting a signal while not performing the ranging process. A transmit power level of the satellite terminal is adjusted for the corresponding frequency based on the estimated path loss and the estimated noise and interference for the corresponding frequency.

Interference compensation in uplink power control

Seamless hand-off of air-to-ground telephony calls is achieved autonomously within an aircraft by using one of at least two radio links to search for additional ground stations. The search for candidate ground stations for hand-off is expedited by eliminating ground stations exhibiting zero or negative Doppler effects. Other values indicating quality of the link corresponding to the channel over which the search is conducted is compared with the quality of the call and an alternate call is established using the call identification code previously established for the call in progress. The hand-off of the call may then be easily conducted by transferring the voice signal to the channel over which the search was conducted. This is preferably done at a time when the transmission quality of the two channels would be approximately the same or the quality improved on the channel to which hand-off is made.

Seamless hand-off for air-to-ground systems

A codec uses low cost digital signal processors (DSPs) to implement the codebook excited linear prediction (CELP) algorithm. The flexible architecture provides a platform for implementing a family of CELP codecs. In a specific example, an 8 Kbps CELP codec is partitioned into parallel tasks for real time implementation on dual DSPs with flexible intertask communication, prioritization and synchronization with asynchronous transmit and receive frame timings. The two DSPs are used in a master-slave pair. Each DSP has its own local memory. The DSPs communicate to each other through interrupts. Messages are passed through a dual port RAM. Each dual port RAM has separate sections for command-response and for data.

Real-time implementation of a 8Kbps CELP coder on a DSP pair

In a card reader, the transducer head is supported at one end of the guide path by a spring-loaded, pivoting arm. The spring is located adjacent the head and urges the head against the card as it passes under the head. The pivoted arm forces the head to follow a slightly arcuate path as it moves in a direction transverse to the card. With this head-support system, the guide path need only extend from approximately the pivot point of the arm to a point a short distance beyond the head and the card can be inserted laterally into the guide just behind the head. The card is read by moving the card longitudinally past the head a distance approximately equal to the length of the card so that it exits the guide just after it passes under the head.

Credit card reader

Airplane telephone set

A telephone device with a handset that fits in a cradle cavity so that the outer surface of the handset is approximately flush with the surface of the cradle. A spring-loaded ejector in the cradle urges the handset against a movable tab on the cradle, that engages a lip on the handset and secures the handset in the cradle. When the tab is moved clear of the lip, the spring-loaded ejector forces the handset out of the cradle so that the handset may be grasped easily by a user, to prevent unexpected complete ejection of the handset. A tongue on the ejector engages a lip on the handset as it is ejected, so that the user must exert a small amount of additional force to remove the handset from the cradle.

Wired seat back aircraft telephone set

A one-piece, molded subassembly with a near-field acoustic chamber and a far-field acoustic chamber on either side of a centrally disposed microphone. A slightly-flared passage through the subassembly couples the far-field acoustic chamber to an exterior port in order to provide noise cancellation. A cord passage in the subassembly is directed in three mutually orthogonal directions so that a strain on the cord is not transmitted beyond the subassembly where it initially enters the handset.

Growing community of inventors

Gaithersburg, MD, United States of America

Walter Robert Kepley, Iii