Method and apparatus for providing an integrated communications, navigation and surveillance satellite system
First Claim
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1. A system for providing integrated communications and navigation information, the system comprising:
- a plurality of satellites networked together, each of said satellites broadcasting navigation signals and being capable of two way communication, and each of said satellites is capable of receiving and relaying surveillance signals;
a user segment having at least one mobile user device, said user device being capable of receiving at least one of said navigation signals broadcast by said satellites and using said at least one received navigation signal to compute its position, and said user device being operable to broadcast a surveillance signal; and
at least one monitoring station for receiving said navigation signals broadcast by said satellites, said at least one monitoring station computing its position based on said navigation signals and transmitting said computed position to at least one of said satellites and to a processing apparatus so that an integrity of said navigation signals can be checked,wherein said processing apparatus is capable of determining a position of a user device that broadcasts said surveillance signal and said user device is operable to communicate its computed position to said processing apparatus and said processing apparatus is operable to compare said computed position of said user device to a position of said user device determined by said processing apparatus using received surveillance signal.
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Abstract
A system provides integrated communications, navigation and surveillance capabilities. A plurality of satellites broadcast multiple navigation signals and is capable of two-way communication. At least one monitoring station is capable of receiving the navigation signals broadcast by the satellites and of determining its position based upon the received navigation signals. The monitoring station communicates its computed position to a processing apparatus so that an integrity of the system can be ascertained.
41 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A system for providing integrated communications and navigation information, the system comprising:
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a plurality of satellites networked together, each of said satellites broadcasting navigation signals and being capable of two way communication, and each of said satellites is capable of receiving and relaying surveillance signals; a user segment having at least one mobile user device, said user device being capable of receiving at least one of said navigation signals broadcast by said satellites and using said at least one received navigation signal to compute its position, and said user device being operable to broadcast a surveillance signal; and at least one monitoring station for receiving said navigation signals broadcast by said satellites, said at least one monitoring station computing its position based on said navigation signals and transmitting said computed position to at least one of said satellites and to a processing apparatus so that an integrity of said navigation signals can be checked, wherein said processing apparatus is capable of determining a position of a user device that broadcasts said surveillance signal and said user device is operable to communicate its computed position to said processing apparatus and said processing apparatus is operable to compare said computed position of said user device to a position of said user device determined by said processing apparatus using received surveillance signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A system for monitoring position locating information and providing feedback regarding an integrity of the position locating information, the system comprising:
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a plurality of satellites in communication with one another, each of said satellites broadcasting position locating information and having bi-directional communication capability; at least one monitoring station at a known position and in direct communication with at least one of said satellites for receiving said position locating information. wherein said monitoring station extrapolates position information from said position locating information, transmits said position information to at least one of said satellites and a processing apparatus, and said processing apparatus uses said transmitted position information and said known position of said at least one monitoring station to verify an integrity of said position locating information being broadcast by said satellites, and wherein said monitoring station is operable to selectively broadcast a surveillance signal and said processing apparatus is operable to compute a position of said monitoring station using said surveillance signal and compare said position of said monitoring station communicated by said monitoring station to said position of said monitoring station computed based upon said surveillance signal to check said integrity of said navigation signals. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of checking an integrity of an integrated communication and navigation system, the method comprising:
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(a) broadcasting navigation signals from a plurality of satellites in communication with one another; (b) computing a position of a monitoring station based upon said navigation signals received by said monitoring station; (c) reporting said computed position to a processing apparatus via a communication signal sent to said satellites; (d) broadcasting a surveillance signal from the monitoring station; (e) computing a position of said monitoring station based upon said surveillance signal; and (f) ascertaining an integrity of said navigation signals with said processing apparatus based upon a comparison of said computed position using said navigation signals and a known position of said monitoring station and a comparison of said computed position of said monitoring station based upon said navigation signals and said surveillance signal. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
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Specification