The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 18, 2000
Filed:
Jun. 13, 1997
Harvey Chalmers, Rockville, MD (US);
Ajit Shenoy, Germantown, MD (US);
Comsat Corporation, Bethesda, MD (US);
Abstract
A satellite communication system including a portable satellite terminal is provided which utilizes C/K.sub.u -band and spread spectrum technology to drastically reduce the antenna and terminal sizes. Both CDMA and time division multiplexing (TDM) are used to permit efficient all-digital voice, facsimile and data operations in either full mesh or star modes. A single Network Controller can handle both Star and Mesh mode traffic on the same or several transponders. Narrowband CDMA/frequency division multiple access is used for inbound transmission from the terminal while outbound transmissions from the hub utilize TDM/FDMA. Furthermore, the system is scalable in fixed bandwidth increments to support network size evolution. All signalling for call setup and takedown is done in-band on the same carrier that is used for the traffic, thereby eliminating the need for a separate signalling channel and frequency retuning. Only a small set of distinct PN code sequences, independent of the actual number of user terminals in the network, are required for the entire network.