Multiple beamwidth phased array
First Claim
1. A system for wireless communication between at least one first station and a plurality of second stations using a relay station, said relay station comprising:
- an antenna array having a plurality of antenna elements divided into at least a first set and a second set, said first set being used to provide transmission or reception using beams having a first beamwidth and said second set being used to provide transmission or reception using beams having a second beamwidth, said first beamwidth being greater than said second beamwidth; and
a multi-channel transponder means, connected to said antenna array and to a feeder link antenna, for receiving feeder link signals from said at least one first station and converting said signals into drive signals for said antenna array elements, wherein said multi-channel transponder means uses a first channel bandwidth for transponding signals to be transmitted using said first beamwidth and a second channel bandwidth for transponding signals to be transmitted using said second beamwidth, said first channel bandwidth being greater than said second channel bandwidth.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for wireless communication between at least one first station and a plurality of second stations using a relay station is disclosed. The relay station contains, among other features, an antenna array and a multi-channel transponder. The antenna array has a plurality of antenna elements which are divided into two sets. The first set is used to provide transmission or reception using beams having a first beamwidth and the second set is used to provide transmission or reception using beams having a second beamwidth. The multi-channel transponder, which is connected to the antenna array and a feeder link antenna, receives feeder link signals from at least one of the first stations and converts the signals into drive signals for the antenna array elements. The multi-channel transponder has a first channel bandwidth for channels transponding signals for transmissions having the first beamwidth and a second channel bandwidth for channels transponding signals for transmissions having said second beamwidth. The plurality of second stations is divided dynamically by a switching system into at least a first group that use the narrowest beamwidth and a second group that use the widest beamwidth, according to the path loss requirements for each group.
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Citations
44 Claims
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1. A system for wireless communication between at least one first station and a plurality of second stations using a relay station, said relay station comprising:
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an antenna array having a plurality of antenna elements divided into at least a first set and a second set, said first set being used to provide transmission or reception using beams having a first beamwidth and said second set being used to provide transmission or reception using beams having a second beamwidth, said first beamwidth being greater than said second beamwidth; and a multi-channel transponder means, connected to said antenna array and to a feeder link antenna, for receiving feeder link signals from said at least one first station and converting said signals into drive signals for said antenna array elements, wherein said multi-channel transponder means uses a first channel bandwidth for transponding signals to be transmitted using said first beamwidth and a second channel bandwidth for transponding signals to be transmitted using said second beamwidth, said first channel bandwidth being greater than said second channel bandwidth. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 32)
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12. A multi-channel transponding method for relaying signals from a first station to a plurality of second stations using an antenna array, comprising the steps of:
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grouping signals at said first station to be transponded to second stations according to locations of said second stations and processing said signals to form composite signals; sampling said composite signals to obtain a plurality of analog signal samples wherein composite signals having a wider bandwidth are sampled more often to produce more samples than composite signals having a narrower bandwidth; multiplexing said analog signal samples with at least one known predetermined sample to form a time-division-multiplexed signal; modulating said time-division-multiplexed signal onto a first radio frequency carrier for transmission from said first station to a relay station; receiving said modulated first radio frequency carrier at said relay station and demodulating said transmission to recover said time-division-multiplexed signal; demultiplexing said demodulated signal to separate recovered analog signal samples, wherein recovered predetermined symbols are used to control said demultiplexing; for each of said wideband signals, combining recovered samples corresponding to the same wideband composite signal and filtering said samples to restore said wideband composite signal; filtering samples corresponding to each of said narrowband composite signal to restore said narrowband signals; converting said restored wideband signals to a second frequency band and amplifying said wideband signals; transmitting said amplified wideband signals at a first power level using for each signal a power amplifier connected to a radiating antenna element; converting said restored narrowband signals to said second frequency band and amplifying said narrowband signals; and transmitting said amplified narrowband signals at a second power level using for each signal a power amplifier connected to a radiating antenna element. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 43, 44)
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21. A system for wireless communication between one or more first stations and a large plurality of second stations using a relay station, said relay station comprising:
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an antenna array having a plurality of antenna elements divided into at least a first set and a second set, said first set being used to provide transmission or reception using beams having a first beamwidth and said second set being used to provide transmission or reception using beams having a second beamwidth; and a multi-channel transponder means, connected to said antenna array and to a feeder link antenna, for receiving signals from said second stations using said antenna array and processing and combining said signals to obtain a signal for transmission to said first stations using said feeder link antenna, wherein said multi-channel transponder uses a first channel bandwidth for transponding signals received using said first set of antenna elements and a second channel bandwidth for transponding signals received using said second set of antenna elements. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A multi-channel transponding method for relaying signals from a plurality of second stations to a first station using an antenna array, comprising the steps of:
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receiving first signals using each of a first set of antenna elements; processing said received first signals using associated transponder channels of a first bandwidth and sampling said processed signals at a first sampling rate to produce a first sample stream corresponding to each channel; receiving second signals using each of a second set of antenna elements; processing said received second signals using associated transponder channels of a second bandwidth and sampling said second signals at a second sampling rate to produce a second sample stream corresponding to each channel; multiplexing said first and second sample streams with at least one known predetermined sample stream to form a time-division-multiplexed signal; modulating said time-division-multiplexed signal onto a feeder link radio carrier frequency for transmission to said first station; receiving said modulated feeder link radio frequency carrier at said first station and demodulating it to recover said time-division-multiplexed signal; demultiplexing said demodulated signal to separate said recovered sample streams including said at least one predetermined sample stream and using said recovered predetermined sample stream to control said demultiplexing; processing said recovered sample streams to separate signals from different second stations; and sending said separated signals to a switched telephone transmission network. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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Specification