COMMUNICATION USERS PREDICTIVE PRODUCT

• US 20160183098A1
• Filed: 12/30/2014
• Published: 06/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Applied Research Associates Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Applied Research Associates Incorporated
• Inventors: Lim, Laura Macy
• Granted Patent: US 9,705,634 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18517 Transmission equipment in earth stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18534 for enhancing link reliablility, e.g. satellites diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 3/22 including jamming detection and monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers

Abstract

The system of the present invention allows a user to select one or multiple SATCOM radio and antenna equipment types, select their current location(s) or a route and select the UHF SATCOM satellite for a multi-user communication network or architecture. The system presents an assessment of the level of performance of the selected system equipment and provides a capability to assess the impact of degrading factors, such as man-made interference (jamming) and natural phenomena (e.g. rain, clouds, ionospheric scintillation). This predictive assessment is a tailored result showing the phenomenology effects. Natural phenomenology like ionospheric scintillation, clouds, and precipitation, plus man-made phenomenologies like SATCOM jammers need to be differentiated by behavior characteristics and performance on a SATCOM frequency. If the system assessment determines the communication link is weak or ineffective based off the user'"'"'s inputs, the application provides the ability to select alternative configurations, e.g. other radio and antenna equipment pairing and/or other satellite options or access times. The system of the present invention can be updated and modified as the satellite communication community and users identify new equipment and additional ionospheric scintillation data resources. Using satellite communication equipment (radio, antenna and satellite specifications) databases and near-real time external data, if available, allows the system of the present invention to generate an assessment tool that shows the quality of the communication overarching architecture.

Claims

1. A system useful in planning satellite communications among one or more specific locations, the system comprising:

a. a database comprising information regarding

i. communications equipment comprising

1. a plurality of radios, wherein the database information for each radio comprises radio name, min-max frequency range, gain or gain/temperature, transmitter power, and internal system losses, and

2. a plurality of antennas, wherein the database information for each antenna comprises antenna name, min-max frequency range, transmitter power, internal system losses, and transmitter power gain, and

ii. a plurality of satellites, wherein the database information for each satellite comprises satellite name, satellite number, altitude, longitude, field of view and EIRP;

b. A user interface displayed electronically by which a user inputs;

i. one or more geographic locations of communications equipment, by latitude, longitude and amplitude, and the type of communications equipment at said geographic location,

ii. the intended frequency of message transmission and reception at each location,

iii. one or more degrading interference sources, by type; and

iv. one or more satellites from the plurality of satellites in the database for communication with the communications equipment;

wherein said user interface transmits the information input by the user to a computer server; and

c. the computer server, which computer server is programmed to;

i. determine from the plurality of satellites in the database, based upon their location and field of view data, the satellites that are available for communication with the communications equipment input or selected by the user, based upon the designated location of the equipment, and transmit a list thereof to the user for selection at the user interface;

ii. calculates the effect of the degrading interference source on the transmission of messages and information between the communications equipment and one of the selected satellites; and

iii. automatically generates and transmits to the user interface for graphic display the communications equipment locations, the satellite locations, and the effect of the degrading interference source calculated.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the degrading interference sources are one or more of ionospheric scintillation, jammers, cloud cover, and precipitation, and the effect of such sources is calculated based upon data in the geographic area of interest.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the user inputs at the user interface one or more values for each selected degrading interference source.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor further retrieves geographically specific data from one or more third party databases, relating to the degrading interference sources selected by the user, relative to the geographic area of interest based upon the designated location(s) of the communications equipment and the satellite field of view, and using the data so retrieved in the degrading interference source effect calculation.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein when the effect is determined to be unacceptable, the system automatically calculates the effect of the degrading interference source for other satellites that have a field of view within the location of the communications equipment, and automatically calculates the effect on other equipment and other frequencies for message transmission, and generates and transmits to the user interface for graphic display different available satellites for communication and different communications equipment, or different frequencies for message transmission, by means of which the effect of the degrading interference source is acceptable;

and

6. The system of claim 1, wherein, by means of said user interface a user may select or input additional locations for communications equipment, modify times of communication, modify frequency of transmission and reception of messages, select different available satellites for communication, and the user interface will transmit sais input or selected information to the computer server, and the computer server will retrieve said scintillation data from said third party database, calculate the effect of scintillation on transmission, and generate and transmit the equipment and satellite locations and the effect of scintillation and jamming to the user interface, allowing the user to assess the effect of scintillation, jamming, temperature, humidity and precipitation on the modified scenario, over time.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the computer server automatically processes scenarios for all available equipment, signal specifications and satellites, in the database.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the computer server determines the weakness or interference in the degraded signals, and runs scenarios only on that equipment, satellite or signal specifications that avoid such weakness or interferrence.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the user is presented at the graphic user interface with a graphical depiction of satellites available for communication with the communication equipment, at the location thereof, based upon the satellites'"'"' respective fields of view.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the database further comprises default values for ionospheric scintillation S₄ values, satellite communication jammer power values, cloud types and resulting attenuation, and rain rate and resulting attenuation.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface displays a map by means of which a user inputs the geographic locations of communications equipment and the satellite(s) by selecting a location on said map.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the user enters data for communications equipment not in the database at the user interface, and the user interface transmits the equipment data to the database.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface allows the user to input a time period of interest for satellite communication, and the processor selects information from a third party database associated with such time period of interest.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface allows the user to input a level of intensity of the degrading interference sources deemed by the system to be unacceptable communications, and the processer uses said input level in determining the quality of the communication links.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the output of the processor, displayed on the graphic user interface, comprises an identification of an acceptable or unacceptable link and the report error rate calculated by the processor of the present invention, over time for the specified time duration.