System and method of communicating multiple carrier waves

• US 8,032,100 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Issued: 10/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures Assets 20 LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Delphi Technologies, Inc. (BorgWarner Incorporated)
• Inventors: Fruit, Larry J., Pollard, Mark A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen; Junpeng
• Application Number:
  US11/824,020
• Publication Number:
  US 20090004970A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,558 Days
• Field of Search: 455/132, 455137-143, 455272-275, 455/68, 455/103, 455/59, 455/82, 455/83, 455/146, 455/147, 455/278, 455/500, 455/152.1, 375/260, 375/273, 375/323, 375/335, 375/338, 375/339, 375/342, 375/344, 375/349, 348/725, 348/729, 348/735
• US Class Current: 455/273
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0837 using pre-detection combining H04B7/0868 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18523 Satellite systems for providing broadcast service to terrestrial stations, i.e. broadcast satellite service arrangements specially adapted for satellite broadcast receiving H04H40/90; picture transmission via satellite H04N1/00103; television transmission via satellite H04N7/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/22 Arrangements for broadcast of identical information via plural broadcast systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/33 by plural channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/72 of terrestrial networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/74 of satellite networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 40/90 specially adapted for satellite broadcast receiving

Abstract

A system and method for communicating a plurality of carrier waves that are received by a single receiver system is provided. The receiver system includes at least one antenna, at least one splitter, a plurality of tuners, and at least one combiner. The antenna receives a plurality of carrier waves. The splitter is in communication with the antenna, and splits the plurality of carrier waves. The plurality of tuners are in communication with the at least one splitter, and the split carrier waves are communicated to a separate tuner. The at least one combiner is in communication with the plurality of tuners, and combines an output of the plurality of tuners to generate an output based upon at least a portion of the received plurality of carrier waves.

Claims

1. A receiver system, comprising:

a first antenna configured to receive a plurality of satellite radio frequency (RF) carrier waves;

a second antenna configured to receive a plurality of terrestrial RF carrier waves;

a first splitter in communication with said first antenna, said first splitter adapted to generate and output a plurality of single split satellite RF carrier waves from the received satellite RF carrier waves;

a second splitter in communication with said second antenna, said second splitter adapted to generate and output a plurality of single split terrestrial RF carrier waves from the received terrestrial RF carrier waves;

a first plurality of tuners in communication with said first splitter, with each tuner in the first plurality of tuners including at least one intermediate frequency (IF) signal, each tuner in the first plurality of tuners is configured to process a single split satellite RF carrier wave and produce an output with a different carrier frequency than said single split satellite RF carrier wave; and

a second plurality of tuners in communication with said second splitter, with each tuner in the second plurality of tuners including at least one intermediate frequency (IF) signal, each tuner in the second plurality of tuners is configured to process a single split terrestrial RF carrier wave and produce an output with a different carrier frequency than said single split terrestrial RF carrier wave.

2. The receiver system of claim 1, wherein a combiner is in communication with each tuner in said first and said second plurality of tuners, wherein said combiner combines the output from each tuner in said first and said second plurality of tuners to generate a combined output based upon at least a portion of said plurality of satellite RF and said plurality of terrestrial RF carrier waves.

3. The receiver system of claim 2 further including,

at least one demodulator being in communication with said combiner, wherein said at least one demodulator demodulates the combined output from said combiner.

4. The receiver system of claim 3, wherein said at least one demodulator comprises at least one analog-to-digital converter (ADC).

5. The receiver system of claim 4, wherein the output of each tuner in the first and the second plurality of tuners has a different IF frequency from the output of every other tuner in the first and the second plurality of tuners, and the respective IF frequencies of the tuners in the first and the second plurality of tuners is within a sample rate of the at least one ADC, and said at least one ADC is in electrical communication with each of the respective tuners of the first and the second plurality of tuners.

6. The receiver system of claim 1, wherein each tuner in said first and said second plurality of tuners down-converts a frequency of each of said single split carrier frequency wave associated with each tuner in said first and said second plurality of tuners such that said respective output of each tuner in said first and said second plurality of tuners is at a lower frequency than said single split carrier frequency wave input to each tuner in said first and said second plurality of tuners.

7. The receiver system of claim 1, wherein said first and said second plurality of tuners include two to six tuners and each respective tuner in the first and the second plurality of tuners is adapted to receive different frequencies from every other tuner in the first and the second plurality of tuners.

8. The receiver system of claim 1, wherein said receiver system is located on a vehicle.

9. The receiver system of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of tuners comprises three distinct tuners and the second plurality of tuners comprises three distinct tuners.

10. The receiver system of claim 1, wherein the first splitter filters out a separated satellite RF carrier wave from the plurality of satellite RF carrier waves to further configure said separated satellite RF carrier wave that are output from the first splitter to each tuner in the first plurality of tuners.

11. The receiver system of claim 1, wherein the second splitter filters out a separated terrestrial RF carrier wave from the plurality of terrestrial RF carrier waves to further configure said separated terrestrial RF carrier wave that are output from the second splitter to each tuner in the second plurality of tuners.

12. The receiver system of claim 1, wherein each tuner in said first and said second plurality of tuners has said at least one IF signal with the at least one IF signal having a common first intermediate frequency.