Systems and methods for fixed satellite service protection using real-time measurement

• US 10,116,381 B1
• Filed: 11/10/2017
• Issued: 10/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cable Television Laboratories Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cable Television Laboratories Incorporated
• Inventors: Smyth, Peter Paul, O'Connor, Jim, Cheng, Lin, Winkelman, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Rego, Dominic
• Application Number:
  US15/809,658
• Time in Patent Office: 354 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/345 Interference values signal-to-interference ratio [SIR] or carrier-to-interference ratio [CIR] H04B17/336
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18519 Operations control, administration or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/242 taking into account path loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA

Abstract

A system for protecting a fixed satellite service site includes at least one earth station, a first beacon detector disposed within close proximity to the at least one earth station, a central server in operable communication with the fixed satellite service site and the first beacon detector, an access point configured to request authorization from the central server for resource allocation, and a beacon transmitter disposed within close proximity to the access point. The beacon transmitter is configured to transmit a beacon signal to one or more of the central server and the first beacon detector, and the beacon signal uniquely identifies the access point.

Claims

1. A system for protecting a fixed satellite service site, comprising:

at least one earth station;

a first beacon detector disposed within close proximity to the at least one earth station;

a central server in operable communication with the fixed satellite service site and the first beacon detector;

an access point configured to request authorization from the central server for resource allocation; and

a beacon transmitter disposed within close proximity to the access point, and configured to transmit a beacon signal to one or more of the central server and the first beacon detector, wherein the beacon signal uniquely identifies the access point.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein beacon transmitter is integral to the access point.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first beacon detector is integral to the at least one earth station.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the first beacon detector comprises a receiving portion and a transmitting portion.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the at least one earth station includes a satellite dish and a frequency agile receiver having at least one low noise block, and wherein the beacon detector receiving portion comprises the at least one low noise block.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the beacon detector transmitting portion comprises a reporter component configured to receive a demodulated beacon signal output from the at least one low noise block and transmit the received the demodulated output beacon signal to the central server.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first beacon detector comprises an external antenna and a transceiver.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the central server comprises a spectrum access system and a central database.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the central server comprises a plurality of central servers.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of central servers collectively share tasks and communicate in a cloud-based network.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein a particular one of the plurality of central servers is a master server managing others of the plurality of central servers.

12. The system of claim 1, the beacon signal includes a received signal strength indication and a unique identifier of the access point.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the beacon transmitter comprises a second beacon detector configured to receive a different beacon signal from a different access point and report the received different beacon signal to the central server.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the first beacon detector comprises a distributed receiver.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the fixed satellite service site includes a third beacon detector comprising a distributed receiver.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the access point is configured to implement small cell communication.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of user equipment devices associated with the access point.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the central server is further configured to manage the plurality of user equipment devices using information included in the beacon signal regarding individual ones of the plurality of user equipment devices.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the central server is further configured to dynamically receive site-related information from the fixed satellite service site including one or more of per-dish frequency usage, direction of alignment, elevation, dish size, GPS coordinates, bandwidth usage, antenna azimuth, elevation angle, receiving schedule, and noise measurements.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein one or more of the direction of alignment, the elevation, the antenna azimuth, and the elevation angle are dynamically obtained by a measuring device disposed with the at least one earth station.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the first beacon detector comprises a plurality of distributed beacon detectors to extend a link budget of the system.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is configured to measure interference and utilize spectrum portions for priority access license and general authorized access license sub-bands in the citizens band radio service.

23. A method for authorizing an access point to operate within a spectrum occupied by a fixed satellite service site, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving, over a communication channel, an application from the access point for operation within the spectrum;

calculating a path loss based on the application from the access point;

determining that interference will be caused by transmission of the access point at a first frequency and a first power level;

instructing the access point to transmit a beacon signal to one or more beacon detectors within range of the access point;

measuring a path loss between the access point and the fixed satellite service site based on reported information from the one or more beacon detectors;

assigning to the access point, based on the measured path loss, a second frequency within the spectrum and a second power level that do not cause substantial interference to the fixed satellite service site; and

authorizing the access point to operate at the second frequency and the second power level.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the first frequency and the first power level are requested by the access point in the application.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the second frequency is different from the first frequency, and wherein the second power level is different from the first power level.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the second frequency is the same as the first frequency, and wherein the second power level is lower than the first power level.

27. The method of claim 23, further comprising, after the step of measuring, a step of monitoring operating parameters and a site status of the fixed satellite service site, and reporting to the access point a change in conditions to at least one of the operating parameters and the site status that will allow the access point to operate at the first frequency and the first power level.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising, after the step of authorizing, a step of controlling the access point to change one or more of the second frequency and the second power level based on new beacon detector information obtained during the step of monitoring.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein the spectrum comprises the CBRS band.

30. The method of claim 23, wherein the spectrum comprises the C-band.