Alignment system for communications

• US 20060003701A1
• Filed: 06/30/2004
• Published: 01/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Pawlenko, Ivan, Daoud, Bassel H., Schwartz, Richard R.
• Application Number:
  US10/881,568
• Publication Number:
  US 20060003701A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/65
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/1121 One-way transmission

Abstract

An alignment mechanism for establishing line-of-sight alignment between a transmitter (100) and a receiver (102) has, a laser pointer (300) that emanates a laser beam along a line-of-sight to illuminate the receiver (102) with a bright spot. An unmodulated reflector (304) at the receiver (102) reflects the emanated laser beam for return path transmission toward the laser pointer (300) to confirm alignment of the line-of-sight with the receiver (102). The transmitter (100) is aligned substantially along the line-of-sight and is fixed in position. A shutter in the form of a chopping wheel (400) modulates the emanated laser beam. The receiver (102) is linked to a communications apparatus (500) having an external antenna (502).

Claims

1. A method of aligning a transmitter and receiver for line-of-sight wireless communications, comprising the steps of:

pointing an emanating pointer beam of a laser pointer toward a receiver to illuminate the receiver with a visually observed bright spot;

reflecting the pointer beam from a reflector positioned substantially along a line-of-sight with the receiver;

observing a reflected pointer beam as being within the visually observed bright spot to confirm that the pointer beam is aligned substantially along the line-of-sight, and

fixing the transmitter in place with the transmitter output aligned substantially along the line-of-sight.

2. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

linking the receiver with a communications apparatus for processing and routing broadband communications signals.

3. The method as in claim 1 wherein,

the step of reflecting the pointer beam from a reflector positioned substantially along a line-of-sight with the receiver, further comprises the step of, reflecting the pointer beam with a corner cube reflector.

4. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

observing the bright spot as having the reflected pointer beam with the visually recognized modulation to confirm that the pointer beam is aligned substantially along the line-of-sight.

5. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

modulating the pointer beam with a coded modulation; and

observing the bright spot as having the reflected pointer beam with the coded modulation to confirm that the pointer beam is aligned substantially along the line-of-sight.

6. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

modulating the pointer beam for intermittent emanation; and

observing the bright spot as having the reflected pointer beam with the intermittent emanation.

7. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

modulating the pointer beam with an electronically encoded modulation; and

observing the bright spot as having the reflected pointer beam with the electronically encoded modulation.

8. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

aligning the emanating pointer beam substantially along a line-of-sight of the transmitter output prior to illuminating the receiver with the visually observed bright spot.

9. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

aligning the emanating pointer beam substantially along a line-of-sight of the transmitter output by mounting the pointer beam on the transmitter prior to illuminating the receiver with the visually observed bright spot.

10. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

diffusing the emanating pointer beam to enlarge the bright spot to be observed.

11. An alignment mechanism for establishing line-of-sight alignment between a transmitter and a receiver comprising:

a laser pointer that emanates a laser beam along a line-of-sight to illuminate a receiver with a bright spot;

a reflector at the receiver to reflect the emanated laser beam for return path transmission toward the laser pointer to confirm an alignment of the line-of-sight with the receiver; and

a transmitter aligned substantially along the alignment confirmed by the reflected laser beam.

12. The alignment mechanism according to claim 11, further comprising:

a communications apparatus including, but not limited to, a video broadcast uplink, a closed circuit video network or a broadband base station; and

the receiver and the communications apparatus being linked by a communications link.

13. The alignment mechanism according to claim 11 wherein, the laser pointer is mounted on the transmitter.

14. The alignment mechanism according to claim 11, further comprising:

a diffuser to diffuse the emanated laser beam.

15. The alignment mechanism according to claim 11, further comprising:

a modulator to modulate the emanated laser beam.

16. The alignment mechanism according to claim 11, further comprising:

a shutter to modulate the emanated laser beam for intermittent transmission.

17. The alignment mechanism according to claim 11, further comprising:

a motor driven shutter to modulate the emanated laser beam for intermittent transmission.

18. The alignment mechanism according to claim 11, further comprising:

a chopping wheel to modulate the emanated laser beam with a varied amplitude.

19. The alignment mechanism according to claim 11, further comprising:

a chopping wheel to modulate the emanated laser beam with a varied amplitude; and

a motor to rotate the chopping wheel.

20. The alignment mechanism according to claim 11 wherein, the reflector is a non-modulating reflector.

21. The alignment mechanism according to claim 11 wherein, the reflector is a retroreflector.