Regional programming in a direct broadcast satellite
First Claim
1. A multi-beam DTH satellite for providing regional programming, the satellite having receiving and transmitting circuitry for receiving a plurality of regional programming uplink beams and for transmitting a plurality of downlink beams, the satellite comprising:
- a switching processor including circuitry that filters regional channels of information from the regional programming uplink beams and switches the regional channels to form sets of switched regional channels that are routed to a particular downlink beam; and
a formatting processor connected to the switching processor including circuitry that combines the sets of switched regional channels into sub-bands of regional programming and digitally formats the regional sub-bands for transmission via the downlink beamsat least one input multiplexer that receives a global programming beam and segments the spectrum of the global beam into a plurality of sub-bands of global information; and
a plurality of output multiplexers connected to the sub-bands of global information, each output multiplexer combining the sub-bands to form a downlink beam for transmission to the ground.
3 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
A multi-beam DBS satellite system capable of providing spectrally efficient regional programming includes at least one DBS satellite having a repeater connected between multiple uplink antennas and multiple downlink antennas. The repeater has a switching processor and a formatting processor. The switching processor includes circuitry for filtering individual channels of information from the uplink frequency division multiplexed (FDM) beams received at the uplink antennas, and also includes circuitry for switching the channels of information to form a set of switched channels. These switched channels are then combined and routed to the formatting processor. The formatting processor converts the switched FDM information into a combined digital TDM signal that preferably corresponds to the DVB standard. Using this repeater, the present invention is capable of linking different geographical sources of programming information to multiple downlink beams in a flexible and spectrally efficient manner for direct transmission to home receivers.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A multi-beam DTH satellite for providing regional programming, the satellite having receiving and transmitting circuitry for receiving a plurality of regional programming uplink beams and for transmitting a plurality of downlink beams, the satellite comprising:
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a switching processor including circuitry that filters regional channels of information from the regional programming uplink beams and switches the regional channels to form sets of switched regional channels that are routed to a particular downlink beam; and a formatting processor connected to the switching processor including circuitry that combines the sets of switched regional channels into sub-bands of regional programming and digitally formats the regional sub-bands for transmission via the downlink beams at least one input multiplexer that receives a global programming beam and segments the spectrum of the global beam into a plurality of sub-bands of global information; and a plurality of output multiplexers connected to the sub-bands of global information, each output multiplexer combining the sub-bands to form a downlink beam for transmission to the ground. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A multi-beam DTH satellite for providing regional programming, the satellite having receiving and transmitting circuitry for receiving a plurality of regional programming uplink beams and for transmitting a plurality of downlink beams, the satellite comprising:
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a switching processor including circuitry that filters regional channels of information from the regional programming uplink beams and switches the regional channels to form sets of switched regional channels that are routed to a particular downlink beam; and a formatting processor connected to the switching processor including circuitry that combines the sets of switched regional channels into sub-bands of regional programming and digitally formats the regional sub-bands for transmission via the downlink beams, wherein the switching processor comprises; (a) a plurality of downconverters connected to the regional programming uplink beams that convert the frequency of the received regional programming beams from a high RF frequency to a lower IF frequency; (b) an IF switching matrix connected to the frequency converted regional programming beams for switching the regional programming beams to form a set of switched regional beams; (c) a plurality of frequency converters for altering the frequency of the switched regional beams to match a subsequent channel extraction filter; (d) a plurality of channel extraction filters for extracting a channel of regional programming information from each switched regional beam; and (e) a plurality of power combiners for combining the channels of regional programming information into non-overlapping sub-bands of switched regional programming information. - View Dependent Claims (17)
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18. A multi-beam DTH satellite for providing regional programming, the satellite having receiving and transmitting circuitry for receiving a plurality of regional programming uplink beams and for transmitting a plurality of downlink beams, the satellite comprising:
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a switching processor including circuitry that filters regional channels of information from the regional programming uplink beams and switches the regional channels to form sets of switched regional channels that are routed to a particular downlink beam; and a formatting processor connected to the switching processor including circuitry that combines the sets of switched regional channels into sub-bands of regional programming and digitally formats the regional sub-bands for transmission via the downlink beams, wherein the switching processor comprises; (a) a plurality of downconverters connected to the regional programming uplink beams that convert the frequency of the received regional programming beams from a high RF frequency to a lower IF frequency; (b) a plurality of filter banks connected to each regional programming beam, each filter bank having a plurality of channel extraction filters for extracting a particular regional channel from the regional programming beams; (c) an IF switching matrix connected to the extracted channels of regional programming information for switching the channels to form a set of switched channels; and (d) a plurality of IF to baseband converters connected to each switched channel.
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19. A multi-beam DTH satellite for providing regional programming, the satellite having receiving and transmit ting circuitry for receiving a plurality of regional programming uplink beams and for transmitting a plurality of downlink beams, the satellite comprising:
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a switching processor including circuitry that filters regional channels of information from the regional programming uplink beams and switches the regional channels to form sets of switched regional channels that are routed to a particular downlink beam; and a formatting processor connected to the switching processor including circuitry that combines the sets of switched regional channels into sub-bands of regional programming and digitally formats the regional sub-bands for transmission via the downlink beams, wherein the formatting processor includes a plurality of digital processing chains for each regional programming uplink beam, each digital processing chain comprising; (a) an analog to digital (A/D) converter; (b) a demultiplexer connected to the A/D converter; (c) a demodulator connected to the demultiplexer; (d) a multiplexer/formatter for combining the channels of regional information and formatting the combined channels into the digital format (e) a modulator connected to the multiplexer/formatter; and (f) an upconverter connected to the modulator.
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20. A multi-beam DTH satellite for providing regional programming, the satellite having receiving and transmitting circuitry for receiving a plurality of regional programming uplink beams and for transmitting a plurality of downlink beams, the satellite comprising:
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a switching processor including circuitry that filters regional channels of information from the regional programming uplink beams and switches the regional channels to form sets of switched regional channels that are routed to a particular downlink beam; and a formatting processor connected to the switching processor including circuitry that combines the sets of switched regional channels into sub-bands of regional programming and digitally formats the regional sub-bands for transmission via the downlink beams, wherein the formatting processor comprises; (a) a plurality of demodulators, each demodulator connected to one extracted channel of regional programming information; (b) a plurality of multiplexer/formatters, each connected to several demodulator; (c) a plurality of modulators connected to the multiplexer/formatters; and (d) a plurality of upconverters connected to the modulators.
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21. A multi-beam DTH satellite for providing regional programming, the satellite having receiving and transmitting circuitry for receiving a plurality of regional programming uplink beams and for transmitting a plurality of downlink beams, the satellite comprising:
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a switching processor including circuitry that filters regional channels of information from the regional programming uplink beams and switches the regional channels to form sets of switched regional channels that are routed to a particular downlink beam; and a formatting processor connected to the switching processor including circuitry that combines the sets of switched regional channels into sub-bands of regional programming and digitally formats the regional sub-bands for transmission via the downlink beams, wherein the circuitry that filters and switches the regional programming beams to form the set of switched regional channels comprises; (a) an IF switching matrix for switching the beams of regional programming information to form a set of output switched beams; and (b) a channel extraction circuit connected to each of the switched output beams for extracting a particular channel of information from the switched beam, the outputs of the channel extraction circuits comprising the set of switched regional channels. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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24. A multi-beam DTH satellite for providing regional programming, the satellite having receiving and transmitting circuitry for receiving a plurality of regional programming uplink beams and for transmitting a plurality of downlink beams, the satellite comprising:
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a switching processor including circuitry that filters regional channels of information from the regional programming uplink beams and switches the regional channels to form sets of switched regional channels that are routed to a particular downlink beam; and a formatting processor connected to the switching processor including circuitry that combines the sets of switched regional channels into sub-bands of regional programming and digitally formats the regional sub-bands for transmission via the downlink beams, wherein the circuitry that filters and switches the regional programming beams to form the set of switched regional channels comprises; (a) a plurality of channel extraction filters connected to each regional programming beam for extracting individual channels of regional information; and (b) a switch matrix for switching the individual channels of regional information to form the set of switched regional channels. - View Dependent Claims (25)
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Specification