Regional programming in a direct broadcast satellite

• US 6,498,922 B1
• Filed: 08/20/1999
• Issued: 12/24/2002
• 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: Lazaris-Brunner, Ken, Beauchamp, Gary, Tailor, Bharat
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, THANH C
• Application Number:
  US09/378,672
• Time in Patent Office: 1,222 Days
• Field of Search: 455/12.1, 455/13.1, 455/3.01, 455/3.02, 455/427, 455/428, 455/430, 455/15, 455/17, 455/20, 455/22, 455/23, 370/307, 370/310, 370/315, 370/316
• US Class Current: 455/12.1
• 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 method of providing regional programming in a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) system having at least one multi-beam DBS satellite, the DBS satellite having circuitry for receiving a plurality of uplink beams and for transmitting a plurality of downlink beams, the method comprising the steps of:

transmitting a plurality of regional programming beams from regional programming stations directly to the DBS satellite, each regional programming beam including channels of regional programming information;

filtering the channels of regional programming information from each regional beam;

switching the regional programming channels;

combining the switched regional programming channels into sub-bands of regional programming information, each sub-band being routed to a particular downlink beam; and

formatting the sub-bands of regional programming information into a digital TDM format for downlinking via the plurality of downlink beams.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

transmitting at least one global programming beam from a central hub station to the DBS satellite;

segmenting the global programming beam into a plurality of sub-bands of global programming information; and

combining the global sub-bands with the regional sub-bands prior to downlinking via the plurality of downlink beams.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the digital TDM format is the DVB format.

4. A direct broadcast satellite (DBS) system for providing regional programming, including at least one multi-beam DBS satellite, the at least one DBS satellite having circuitry for receiving a plurality of uplink beams and for transmitting a plurality of downlink beams, the system comprising:

means for transmitting regional programming beams from regional programming stations directly to the at least one DBS satellite, each regional programming beam including at least one channel of regional programming information;

means for filtering the channels of regional programming information from each regional beam;

means for switching the regional programming channels; and

means for formatting the switched regional programming channels into a digital TDM format for downlinking via the plurality of downlink beams.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising:

means for combining the switched regional programming channels into sub-bands of regional programming information, each sub-band being routed to a particular downlink beam after being formatted into the digital TDM format by the means for formatting.

6. The system of claim 4, further including a plurality of multi-beam DBS satellites, wherein at least two of the plurality of multi-beam DBS satellites are connected by an inter-satellite link.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the plurality of multi-beam DBS satellites form a constellation of satellites having a plurality of inter-satellite links that connect the plurality of multi-beam DBS satellites.

8. A method of providing regional programming in a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) system, comprising:

transmitting a plurality of regional programming beams of information from regional programming sources directly to a multi-beam DBS satellite, the regional programming beams including channels of regional programming information;

extracting the channels of information from the regional programming beams;

mapping the regional channels of information to a plurality of downlink beams; and

formatting the mapped regional channels into a digital TDM format.

9. The method of claim 8, further including the step of re-mapping the regional channels to different downlink beams.

10. The method of claim 8, further including the steps of:

transmitting at least one global programming beam of information from a central hub station directly to the DBS satellite;

combining the global programming information with the formatted mapped regional channels; and

downlinking the combined information to the ground via the plurality of downlink beams.

11. The method of claim 10, further including the step of:

combining the mapped regional channels into sub-bands of regional programming information prior to formatting.

12. The method of claim 10, further including the steps of:

transmitting at least one global programming beam of information from a central hub station directly to the DBS satellite;

segmenting sub-bands of global information from the global beam;

amplifying the global sub-bands and the regional sub-bands; and

combining the amplified global and regional sub-bands to form downlink beams for transmission back to the ground.