PACKETIZED RADIO FREQUENCY TRANSPORT SYSTEM

• US 20150244624A1
• Filed: 10/08/2014
• Published: 08/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kratos Integral Holdings, LLC (Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Kratos Integral Holdings, LLC (Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Incorporated)
• Inventors: Orndorff, Timothy James, Asiano, William, Heath, Douglas, Sullivan, Daniel, Meleski, John, Genrich, Thad Jay
• Granted Patent: US 9,577,936 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/0003 Software-defined radio [SDR] systems, i.e. systems wherein components typically implemented in hardware, e.g. filters or modulators/demodulators, are implented using software, e.g. by involving an AD or DA conversion stage such that at least part of the signal processing is performed in the digital domain digital baseband systems H04L25/00; digital modulation/demodulation H04L27/00; CDMA H04B1/707; TDMA H04B7/2643; image transmission H04N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/155 Ground-based stations H04B7/204 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0041 Arrangements at the transmitter end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0057 Block codes H04L1/0061, H04L1/0064 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4633 Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion

Abstract

Means for transporting multi-band RF spectrum over a digital network including: means for converting radio frequency signal into internet protocol packets; means for time stamping and preserving timing for the converted radio frequency signal; and means for transporting the radio frequency signal using a radio transport standard.

Claims

1. A spectral network device, comprising:

at least one of a transmitter and a receiver;

the transmitter including;

a down sampler configured to convert message data between analog and digital domains and extract at least one smaller bandwidth channel from a larger bandwidth channel;

a packet encoder configured to implement and manage at least one spectral channel and encapsulate the message data;

the receiver including;

a packet decoder configured to implement and manage the at least one spectral channel and reconstitute the message data;

an up sampler configured to convert the message data between digital and analog domains and insert the at least one smaller bandwidth channel into the larger bandwidth channel.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the packet encoder encapsulates the at least one spectral channel signal into ANSI/VITA-49 Radio Transport Standard (VRT) packets.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the packet encoder implements and manages the at least one spectral channel using Packet Forward Error Correction (P-FEC) techniques.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the packet encoder is further configured to add the P-FEC techniques to the VRT packets by arranging the VRT packets into interleaved parity groups.

5. The device of claim 2, wherein in-phase and quadrature samples of the VRT packets are inserted into the at least one spectral channel signal with unused bits between the samples.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein each sample is a fixed-point signed number, and a number of bits per sample is adjustable based on a signal-to-noise ratio required by processing equipment at a remote destination.

7. The device of claim 2, wherein the packet decoder is further configured to decapsulate and decode the encapsulated and encoded message data using a VRT parity packet for each of a plurality of groups of VTR packets.

8. The device of claim 1, further comprising

an automatic failover unit including at least one of a passive splitter and a passive combiner,

wherein the passive splitter is configured to split the at least one spectral channel signal into a plurality of source signals for diversity.

9. An apparatus comprising:

means for transporting multi-band RF spectrum over a digital network including;

means for converting radio frequency signal into internet protocol packets;

means for time stamping and preserving timing for the converted radio frequency signal; and

means for transporting the radio frequency signal using a radio transport standard.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the radio transport standard includes an ANSI/VITA-49 standard.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising

means for seamless switching of data streams between different antenna and modem equipment to support antenna and processing site diversity.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising

means for converting from internet protocol to analog for one of legacy modems or spectrum analysis.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising

means for at least one of splitting, recombining, and moving of the multi-band RF spectrum between different sources, destinations and frequencies.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising

means for performing packet forward error correction.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising

means for providing digitized representations of a slice of the multi-band RF spectrum.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising

mean for characterizing the means for providing digitized representations by a center frequency and a bandwidth.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising

means for subdividing the means for providing digitized representations into at least one smaller bandwidth channel.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the means for subdividing comprises

means for extracting the at least one smaller bandwidth channel from a larger bandwidth channel.