Satellite communications system incorporating ground relay station through which messages between terminal stations are routed
First Claim
1. A communication system in which communications among ground terminal stations are relayed through an earth-orbiting satellite and a ground relay station, said system comprisinga set of ground terminal stations linked to subscribers, each terminal station including(1) a transmitter for transmitting outgoing messages independent of control from said ground relay station,(2) a receiver for receiving incoming messages,an orbiting satellite relay including means for relaying earthward transmissions from the ground stations in the system, said ground relay station including(1) means for receiving the message transmissions from said terminal stations relayed by said satellite relay, and(2) means for processing the received messages according to message destination and retransmitting them to said satellite relay, whereby all messages transmitted from each terminal station are relayed by the satellite relay to the ground relay station and then relayed from the ground relay station through the satellite relay to the terminal stations connected to the subscribers who are to receive the messages.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A satellite relay communications system includes a ground relay station arranged so that each message from one subscriber to another is relayed by the satellite relay to the ground relay, processed by the ground relay and then transmitted to the second subscriber by way of the satellite relay. Processing at the ground relay station includes a switching function in which the carrier frequency of each message is changed from the frequency used for transmitting by the subscriber sending each message to the frequency used for reception by the subscriber to whom the message is addressed. This permits each subscriber to use a single transmitting frequency and a minimum number of receiving frequencies.
201 Citations
26 Claims
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1. A communication system in which communications among ground terminal stations are relayed through an earth-orbiting satellite and a ground relay station, said system comprising
a set of ground terminal stations linked to subscribers, each terminal station including (1) a transmitter for transmitting outgoing messages independent of control from said ground relay station, (2) a receiver for receiving incoming messages, an orbiting satellite relay including means for relaying earthward transmissions from the ground stations in the system, said ground relay station including (1) means for receiving the message transmissions from said terminal stations relayed by said satellite relay, and (2) means for processing the received messages according to message destination and retransmitting them to said satellite relay, whereby all messages transmitted from each terminal station are relayed by the satellite relay to the ground relay station and then relayed from the ground relay station through the satellite relay to the terminal stations connected to the subscribers who are to receive the messages.
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25. A communication system in which communications between ground stations are relayed through an earth-orbiting satellite and a ground relay station, said system comprising
a set of ground terminal stations linked to subscribers, each terminal station including a transmitter for transmitting outgoing messages independent of control from said ground relay station, and a receiver for receiving incoming messages, a satellite having a plurality of antennas, each of said antennas being arranged and designated for communication with a different group of said terminal stations, a ground relay station, means in said satellite for relaying to the ground relay station messages transmitted by said terminal stations, means in said ground relay station for processing the messages according to message destination relayed thereto and retransmitting the messages on different carrier frequencies according to the terminal station groups to which the messages are to be sent, and means in said satellite relay for sorting the transmissions from said ground relay station according to the carrier frequencies thereof and retransmitting them through the respective antennas according to the carrier frequencies so as to retransmit to each ground terminal station through the antenna designated for communication with that ground terminal station.
Specification