Regional programming in a direct broadcast satellite

• US 6,266,329 B1
• Filed: 03/28/2000
• Issued: 07/24/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Com Dev Limited (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Com Dev Limited (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Beauchamp, Gary, Tailor, Bharat, Lazaris-Brunner, Ken
• Primary Examiner(s): Hsu, Alpus H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Qureshi, Afsar M.
• Application Number:
  US09/536,767
• Time in Patent Office: 483 Days
• Field of Search: 455/12.1, 455/20, 455/450, 455/15, 455/17, 455/23, 455/427, 455/509, 342/314, 342/321, 370/307, 370/320, 370/321, 370/322, 370/316, 370/486, 370/319, 370/323, 370/330, 370/337, 370/344, 370/347, 370/436, 370/478
• US Class Current: 370/316
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 40/90 specially adapted for satellite broadcast receiving

Abstract

A multi-beam DBS satellite system capable of providing spectrally efficient regional programming is disclosed. The inventive system 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.

Claims

1. A multi-beam satellite, comprising:

an antenna that receives a global programming signal and a plurality of regional programming signals;

a switching processor that extracts a plurality of channels from the regional programming signals and switches the channels to form a plurality of switched channels;

circuitry for combining the switched channels into a plurality of sub-bands of regional programming, each sub-band of regional programming including one or more switched channels;

a formatting processor that formats the sub-bands of regional programming into a digital TDM format; and

circuitry for combining the sub-bands of regional programming with the global programming signal to form a plurality of downlink signals.

2. The multi-beam satellite of claim 1, wherein the switching processor is an analog processor.

3. The multi-beam satellite of claim 1, wherein the switching processor is a digital processor.

4. The multi-beam satellite of claim 2, wherein the switching processor comprises:

a plurality of surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) filters that extract the channels from the regional programming signals; and

an analog switching matrix that switches the extracted channels to form the plurality of switched channels.

5. The multi-beam satellite of claim 3, wherein the switching processor comprises:

a plurality of digital frequency demultiplexers that extract the channels from the regional programming signals; and

a digital circuit switch te extracted channels to form the plurality of switched channels.

6. The multi-beam satellite of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry for segmenting the global programming signal into a plurality of global sub-bands;

a plurality of amplifiers that amplify the sub-bands of global information; and

wherein the circuitry for combining the sub-bands of regional programming with the global programming signal includes at least one multiplexer for combining the sub-bands of regional programming with the global sub-bands.

7. The multi-beam satellite of claim 1, wherein the digital TDM format is the DVB standard.

8. A satellite system for providing global and regional programming, comprising:

a central hub station for providing at least one global programming beam having a plurality of global channels;

a plurality of regional programming stations for providing a plurality regional programming beams, each regional programming beam having at least one regional channel; and

a multi-beam satellite, comprising;

circuitry for receiving the global programming beam and the plurality of regional programming beams;

circuitry for extracting the global and regional channels from the received global and regional programming beams, and for switching the extracted channels to form a set of switched channels;

circuitry for combining the switched channels into downlink beams and for formatting the downlink beams into a TDM format; and

circuitry for transmitting the downlink beams from the satellite.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a plurality of DTH receivers for receiving the downlink beams of global and regional programming.

10. A satellite, comprising:

at least one antenna for receiving a plurality of frequency division multiplexed signals, at least one of the plurality of frequency division multiplexed signals including a plurality of channels;

an input multiplexer coupled to the frequency division multiplexed signal having a plurality of channels for splitting the plurality of channels into a plurality of frequency division multiplexed sub-bands;

a switching processor coupled to the plurality of frequency division multiplexed signals for switching the frequency division multiplexed signals between a plurality of inputs and a plurality of outputs and for combining the switched signals into a plurality of switched frequency division multiplexed sub-bands;

a formatter coupled to the switched frequency division multiplexed sub-bands for converting the frequency division multiplexed sub-bands into a plurality of time division multiplexed sub-bands; and

an output multiplexer coupled to at least one of the plurality of frequency division multiplexed sub-bands and at least one of the plurality of time division multiplexed sub-bands for forming a downlink signal.

11. A multi-beam satellite, comprising:

a switching processor that extracts regional channels from one or more regional programming uplink beams and switches the regional channels to form a set of switched regional channels;

circuitry for combining the set of switched regional channels into one or more regional sub-bands;

a formatting processor that formats the regional sub-bands into one or more digital time division multiplexed regional downlink signals; and

circuitry for combining the one or more digital time division multiplexed regional downlink signals with global channels from a global programming uplink beam to form one or more downlink beams.

12. The multi-beam satellite of claim 11, further comprising:

a multi-beam antenna for receiving the regional programming uplink beam and the global programming uplink beam and for transmitting the downlink beams.

13. The multi-beam satellite of claim 11, further comprising:

circuitry for segmenting the global programming uplink beam into a plurality of global sub-bands; and

circuitry for combining the regional sub-bands with the global sub-bands.

14. The multi-beam satellite of claim 11, wherein the switching processor is an analog switching processor.

15. The multi-beam satellite of claim 14, wherein the analog switching processor includes:

a switch matrix coupled to the regional programming beams for switching the regional programming beams onto a plurality of switched beam outputs; and

a plurality of extraction filters coupled to the switched beam outputs for extracting a regional channel from a switched regional programming beam.

16. The multi-beam satellite of claim 15, wherein the switch matrix is an intermediate frequency (IF) switch matrix.

17. The multi-beam satellite of claim 16, wherein the analog switching processor further includes:

a plurality of downconverters coupled to the regional programming beams for downconverting the regional programming beams from a receive frequency to an intermediate freqeuency that is compatible with the IF switch matrix.

18. The multi-beam satellite of claim 17, wherein the plurality of downconverters are coupled to a common local oscillator that provides the IF frequency that is compatible with the IF switch matrix.

19. The multi-beam satellite of claim 15, wherein the analog switching processor further includes:

a plurality of frequency converters coupled between the switched beam outputs and the plurality of extraction filters; and

a plurality of variable local oscillators coupled to the frequency converters for generating an extraction frequency, wherein the extraction frequency corresponds to a particular extraction filter and controls which regional channel is extracted from the switched regional programming beam.

20. The multi-beam satellite of claim 19, wherein the extraction frequency of the variable local oscillators is controlled by a signal received from a ground station.

21. The multi-beam satellite of claim 11, wherein the circuitry for combining the set of switched regional channels into one or more regional sub-bands is part of the switching processor and includes a plurality of power combiners.

22. The multi-beam satellite of claim 11, wherein the switching processor is a digital switching processor.

23. The multi-beam satellite of claim 22, wherein the digital switching processor includes:

a plurality of digital demultiplexers for extracting the regional channels from the one or more regional programming uplink beams and a digital switch for switching the regional channels to form the set of switched regional channels.

24. The multi-beam satellite of claim 15, wherein the extraction filters are surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters.

25. The multi-beam satellite of claim 15, wherein the analog switching processor further includes:

a plurality of frequency converters for converting the regional sub-bands into baseband signals.

26. The multi-beam satellite of claim 25, wherein the formatting processor includes:

a plurality of analog to digital converters for converting the regional sub-band baseband signals into digital regional sub-band baseband signals; and

a digital formatter for formatting the digital regional sub-band baseband signals into the time division multiplexed format.

27. The multi-beam satellite of claim 14, wherein the analog switching processor includes:

a plurality of extraction filters coupled to the regional programming beams for extracting the regional programming channels; and

a switch matrix for switching the regional programming channels to form the set of switched regional channels.

28. A satellite-based system for providing global and regional programming to a plurality of customer locations, comprising:

a direct to home (DTH) receiver at each customer location for receiving a downlink signals;

a global programming hub station for receiving a plurality of global channels and for generating a global programming uplink signal;

a plurality of regional programming stations for receiving a plurality of regional channels and for generating a plurality of regional programming uplink signals; and

a multi-beam DTH satellite for receiving the global programming uplink signal and the plurality of regional programming uplink signals and for combining selected regional channels with the global programming uplink signal to form a plurality of downlink signals that are transmitted to the DTH receivers.

29. A method of providing television signals to a plurality of customers, comprising the steps of:

generating a global programming signal including a plurality of global television signals;

generating a plurality of regional programming signals including one or more regional television signals;

uplinking the global programming signal from a central hub ground station to a satellite in orbit about the Earth;

uplinking the plurality of regional programming signals from a plurality of regional ground stations to the satellite;

switching the regional programming signals onboard the satellite to form a set of switched regional programming signals and combining the switched regional programming signals with the global programming signal to form a plurality of downlink beams; and

downlinking the plurality of downlink beams to the plurality of customers.

30. A satellite communication system for handling communication signals, comprising:

first and second regional programming sources that transmit respectively first and second regional programming uplink beams to a satellite,

wherein the first regional programming uplink beam contains programming information from a first geographical region,

wherein the second regional programming uplink beam contains programming information from a geographical region that is different from the first geographical region; and

a central hub that transmits a global programming uplink beam to the satellite, wherein the global programming uplink beam contains programming information from a plurality of distributed geographical regions;

wherein the satellite includes receiving circuitry that is a recipient of the first and second regional programming uplink beams from respectively the first and second regional programming sources, wherein the receiving circuitry is a recipient of the global programming uplink beam from the central hub;

wherein the satellite includes transmission circuitry connected to the receiving circuitry and is a sender of downlink beams,

wherein each of the downlink beams from the transmission circuitry is capable of containing programming information generated from the first regional programming uplink beam, the second regional programming uplink beam, and the global programming uplink beam.

31. The satellite communication system of claim 30, wherein at least two of the downlink beams operate at about the same carrier frequency.

32. The satellite communication system of claim 30, wherein at least two of the downlink beams operate at about the same carrier frequency and are transmitted from the satellite substantially concurrently.

33. The satellite communication system of claim 30, wherein the transmission circuitry maps on-the-fly the first regional programming information to one of the downlink beams.

34. The satellite communication system of claim 30, wherein the transmission circuitry includes a switching processor means and a formatting processor means for mapping on-the-fly the first regional programming information to one of the downlink beams.

35. The satellite communication system of claim 30, wherein the format of the first and second regional programming uplink beams is in FDM format, wherein the format of the global programming uplink beam is in FDM format.

36. The satellite communication system of claim 35, wherein the format of the downlink beams is in TDM format.

37. The satellite communication system of claim 36, wherein the TDM format is the DVB standard format.

38. The satellite communication system of claim 30, wherein the first geographical region does not have an overlapping portion with the geographical region associated with the second regional programming uplink beam.

39. The satellite communication system of claim 30, wherein the first geographical region has an overlapping portion with the geographical region associated with the second regional programming uplink beam.

40. A satellite communication system for handling communication signals by a satellite, said communication signals being embodied in carrier waves and comprising:

first and second regional programming uplink beams that are transmitted to the satellite,

wherein the first regional programming uplink beam contains programming information from a first geographical region,

wherein the second regional programming uplink beam contains programming information from a geographical region that is different from the first geographical region;

a global programming uplink beam transmitted to the satellite, wherein the global programming uplink beam contains programming information from a plurality of distributed geographical regions; and

first and second downlink beams that are transmissions from the satellite,

wherein the first and second downlink beams are each capable of transmitting the first regional programming information, second regional programming information, and the global programming uplink beam.

41. The satellite communication system of claim 40, wherein the first and second downlink beams operate at about the same carrier frequency.

42. The satellite communication system of claim 40, wherein the first and second downlink beams operate at about the same carrier frequency and are transmitted from the satellite substantially concurrently.

43. The satellite communication system of claim 40, wherein the satellite maps on-the-fly the first regional programming information to the first downlink beam.

44. The satellite communication system of claim 40, wherein the satellite includes a switching processor means and a formatting processor means for mapping on-the-fly the first regional programming information to the first downlink beam.

45. The satellite communication system of claim 40, wherein the format of the first and second regional programming uplink beams is in FDM format, wherein the format of the global programming uplink beam is in FDM format.

46. The satellite communication system of claim 45, wherein the format of the first and second downlink beams is in TDM format.

47. The satellite communication system of claim 45, wherein the TDM format is the DVB standard format.

48. The satellite communication system of claim 40, wherein the first geographical region does not have an overlapping portion with the geographical region associated with the second regional programming uplink beam.

49. The satellite communication system of claim 40, wherein the first geographical region has an overlapping portion with the geographical region associated with the second regional programming uplink beam.

50. A system for providing television signals to a plurality of customers, comprising:

means for generating a global programming signal including a plurality of global television signals;

means for generating a plurality of regional programming signals including one or more regional television signals;

means for uplinking the global programming signal from a central hub ground station to a satellite in orbit about the Earth;

means for uplinking the plurality of regional programming signals from a plurality of regional ground stations to the satellite;

means for switching the regional programming signals onboard the satellite to form a set of switched regional programming signals and combining the switched regional programming signals with the global programming signal to form a plurality of downlink beams; and

means for downlinking the plurality of downlink beams to the plurality of customers.