|Publication number||US7522115 B2|
|Application number||US 11/332,664|
|Publication date||Apr 21, 2009|
|Filing date||Jan 12, 2006|
|Priority date||Jul 13, 2004|
|Also published as||US20060187137, WO2007082074A2, WO2007082074A3|
|Publication number||11332664, 332664, US 7522115 B2, US 7522115B2, US-B2-7522115, US7522115 B2, US7522115B2|
|Original Assignee||Mediaur Technologies, Inc.|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (9), Non-Patent Citations (6), Referenced by (3), Classifications (9), Legal Events (4)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
This application is a continuation in Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/890,678, filed on Jul. 13, 2004, and entitled “Satellite Ground Station Antenna with Wide Field of View and Nulling Pattern”, the priority of which is hereby claimed.
The present description relates to ground station antennas for satellite communications and, in particular, to an antenna using surface waveguide antennas, such as polyrod feeds, in which the angular field of view is wider than the spacing between a target satellite and neighboring interfering satellites.
The deployment of satellite dish antennas is limited by the size of the dish. C-band communications traditionally require about a six foot (200 cm) diameter dish. The size of the dish has significantly limited C-band ground station antennas to commercial and rural locations. C-band antennas are used, for example, by local television broadcasters to receive national programming and have been used by bars and hotels to receive special programming. With the advent of Ku-band satellites, ground station antennas with about a three or four foot (100-120 cm) dish were introduced. These antennas are commonly used by gas stations, retailers, and businesses for credit card transactions and internal business communications. Even the three foot dish is difficult for one person to install and difficult to conceal in smaller structures, such as restaurants and homes. With the advent of 18 inch (45 cm) dishes, satellite antennas have become acceptable and have found widespread use in homes and in businesses of all sizes. These antennas are promoted by DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite) television broadcasters such as DIRECTV and Echostar (The Dish Network).
Three important factors that determine the size of the dish for a satellite antenna are the frequency of the communications signals, the power of the communication signals and the distance between satellites using the same frequency. Higher frequencies, such as Ku and Ka-band signals may be sent and received using smaller dishes than lower frequencies, such as C-band signals. Lower power signals require a larger dish to collect more energy from the transmitted signals. Finally, if the satellites are spaced close together in the sky, then a larger dish is required in order to distinguish the signals from one satellite from those of its neighbors. In DBS systems, several satellites are used very close together but the satellites use different frequencies so that the antenna can easily distinguish the signals.
In order to use fixed dish antennas, the satellite with which the antenna communicates must also be fixed relative to the position of the antenna. Most communication satellites accordingly are placed in an equatorial geosynchronous (geostationary) orbit. At the altitude corresponding to geosynchronous orbit (22,282 miles, 36,000 km), the satellites complete each orbit around the equator in one day, at the same speed that the earth rotates. From the earth, the satellite appears to stay in a fixed position over the equator.
Each position over the equator is assigned by an international agency such as the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) in cooperation with the appropriate ministries or commissions of the countries that may wish to use the positions, such as the U.S. FCC (Federal Communications Commissions). The positions have been divided into orbital slots and they are spaced apart by specified numbers of degrees. The degrees refer to the angle between the satellites as viewed from the earth. There are 360 degrees available around the globe for orbital slots, however, many of these are over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Note that a particular equatorial slot over the central United States may be useful also for Canada and much of Central and South America and that satellites separated by as little as two degrees will be over 1000 miles (1600 km) apart in orbit.
As mentioned above, two widely used frequency bands are C-band and Ku-band. Ka-band, at a higher frequency than Ku-band, is just entering into commercial use. The C-band was widely used before Ku-band became feasible, but its low frequency required large ground station antenna dishes or reflectors (over six feet, 200 cm). Ku-band is used in the U.S. for DBS television, using BSS (Broadcast Satellite Service) frequency and geosynchronous orbital slot assignments. International telephone, business-to-business networks, VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) satellite networks, and, in Europe, DBS television services use FSS (Fixed Satellite Service) Ku-band frequency and geosynchronous orbital slot assignments.
BSS services are designed to be received by small dish antennas, with a diameter of 18-24 inches (45-60 cm). To support such a small dish, the satellites are in orbital slots spaced 9 degrees apart. FSS services are designed to be received by larger dish antennas, typically 36-48 inches (100-120 cm) in diameter. This larger diameter produces a narrower antenna pattern, which accommodates the 2 degree orbital spacing used for FSS. The larger orbital spacing for BSS limits the total number of slots available to accommodate BSS satellites.
The present invention is applicable to satellite ground station antennas having a wide field of view in comparison to the satellites with which the antenna connects. One embodiment includes a parabolic reflector having a size that corresponds to a beam with an angular half-width larger than the spacing between neighboring interfering satellites. It also has a feed comprising at least two dielectric rod-based surface waveguides coupled to the parabolic reflector configured to have a high sensitivity for a target satellite within the angular half-width of the reflector beam and a low sensitivity for neighboring interfering satellites within the angular half-width of the reflector beam. Another embodiment includes projecting a first radiation pattern, such as a digital communications link, between a ground station antenna and a target satellite and projecting a second radiation pattern to a target interferer.
Embodiments of the present invention will be understood more fully from the detailed description given below and from the accompanying drawings of various embodiments of the invention. The drawings, however, should not be taken to be limiting, but are for explanation and understanding only.
In a BSS system, a few uplink centers will transmit signals to the satellite. These signals are normally DBS television programming, although BSS services may be used for other types of signals. The satellite will frequency shift the uplink signals and broadcast them to millions of subscriber antennas on the earth. In a typical DBS system, the subscriber antennas do not transmit. These are sometimes referred to as TVRO (Television Receive Only) antennas. However, two-way DBS antennas may also be used. TVRO antennas may also be built for FSS and for C-band services. In a two-way FSS system, hundreds or thousands of ground station antennas transmit signals to and receive signals from each other through the satellite. The signals may be directed to a single receiver, multi-cast to specific receivers or broadcast to hundreds, thousands or millions of receivers. Two-way communication is also possible with BSS systems.
The characteristics of typical BSS and FSS systems are described here to aid in understanding the invention. The specific nature of BSS and FSS services are determined by market demand and regulation and may be changed over time as different markets and technologies develop. While the present invention is described in the context of BSS and FSS services, for which it is well-suited, it may be applied to many other types of services. The present invention requires no particular type of licensing regulations and no particular frequency allocation.
As shown in
In a DBS system, the receiver may decrypt and decompress the signals and modulate them for playback on a television. The receiver may also select from multiple channels and decode text or image data for display on a screen. For a business VSAT system, the receiver may demodulate received signals and modulate and amplify signals for transmission. The receiver may sit as a node on a local area network or be coupled to a node on a local area network and act as a wide area network gateway for the other nodes of the local area network. The receiver may also provide power to the LNBF to drive oscillators and amplifiers.
As shown in
The particular design of
As shown in
The diagram of
For FSS, however, the satellites are spaced only two degrees apart. At two degrees offset, the amplitude is −5.5 dB or reduced to 50% of the maximum. Such a signal is still received and can interfere significantly with a signal from the satellite at zero degrees offset. At four degrees offset the amplitude is attenuated 22 dB or a mere 8% of the maximum sensitivity. The four degree offset signals are accordingly unlikely to create much interference with the central signal. Accordingly, if three satellites with two degrees spacing are transmitting to the 60 cm antenna with equal power, the carrier to interference (C/I) ratio would be 2.5 dB in the center of the received pattern.
The diagram of
As can be seen from
While a larger dish allows interference from neighboring satellites to be reduced, smaller dishes are less expensive to build, ship and install and greatly preferred for aesthetic reasons. The wide distribution of the received or transmitted signal of a smaller dish may be compensated by generating nulls in the antenna pattern at the positions of any interfering adjacent satellites. Nulls may be generated in a variety of different ways. In the example of
For the example of
When nulls are introduced at the positions of the first adjacent satellites, for example at two degrees, the main beam may be broadened. The antenna pattern may become broad enough that interference from the second adjacent satellites, for example at four degrees, may become a problem. However, additional nulls may be added at the second-adjacent positions. Additional nulls may be added at any position as desired to achieve any target C/I ratio.
The graphs of the figures of the present invention show only two dimensions, while the reception and transmission patterns are three dimensional. Two dimensions are shown to simplify the drawings. For a geosynchronous satellite application, all of the satellites are aligned roughly with the equator and so the interfering satellites are all aligned along the same dimension. In other words, when pointing a ground station antenna, there may be interfering satellites to the east and west of the intended satellite, but there will not be any interfering geosynchronous satellites to the north or south. As a result, interference from neighboring satellites can be mitigated by adding nulls only in the east/west dimension. This has an additional benefit in that there need not be any reduction in the signal in the other direction, orthogonal to the neighboring satellites. This direction is not shown in the Figures.
One way to add nulls to a reception or transmission pattern is to add feed horns.
By adding feeds to the left and right of center, two additional reception and transmission patterns are created. If the feeds are identical to the center feed then two very similar reception or transmission patterns will be added to the first one. An idealized representation of this group of three patterns is shown in
An example treatment of the signals from the three feed horns of
The outer two signals are next fed each to an attenuator 79-2, 79-3 and then each to a 180 degrees phase shifter 81-2, 81-3 before the signals are combined. This allows the nulls to be reduced and the phase to be inverted before all three signals are mixed in a combiner 83. By adjusting the amount of attenuation, the position of the nulls can be adjusted. As shown in
The amount of attenuation and phase shift may be provided by fixed passive components or by adjustable gain stages and adjustable phase shifters. Adjustable components may allow for calibration of the gain and phase to compensate for differences in the feed horn positions, the feed horn geometry, the LNA's and the mixers. Alternatively, the phase shifting and attenuation may be performed using feed horn design or hybrid waveguide principles instead of the electrical IF configuration shown. The particular design of the circuit of
The RF energy received by the feed horn 91 is optimized by the lens and feed horn combination for the particular pattern of satellites from which signals are received. The lens modifies the modes from the feed horn to correspond to the modes of the three separate feed horns described with respect to
As further shown in
As another alternative, the feed horn may be modified to excite modes that correspond to the three separate feed horns described with respect to
As an alternative to the feed horns described above, a dielectric rod or wire may be used as a guide for the received satellite signals. Such dielectric rods offer compact dimensions which may be better suited to closely positioned combinations of 3 or 5 or more feeds as described above. An example of a polyrod for such an application is shown in
A circular metal waveguide 113 is used to carry the signals from the polyrod to the various filters, multiplexers and combiners described above. The metal waveguide of
The opposite end of the metal waveguide has an opening 115 to receive the dielectric rod, as shown in
As a further alternative, any of the feed horns may be dielectric loaded. This may allow a smaller horn to be used without any loss of gain.
A lesser or more equipped satellite antenna, LNBF and signal processing system than the examples described above may be preferred for certain implementations. Therefore, the configurations may vary from implementation to implementation depending upon numerous factors, such as price constraints, performance requirements, technological improvements, or other circumstances. Embodiments of the invention may also be applied to other types of communication systems to use small antennas for multiple nearby transmitters and receivers.
In the description above, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that embodiments of the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form.
Embodiments of the present invention may include various operations. The operations of embodiments of the present invention may be performed by hardware components, such as those shown in the Figures, or may be embodied in machine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause general-purpose or special-purpose processor, microcontroller, or logic circuits programmed with the instructions to perform the operations. Alternatively, the operations may be performed by a combination of hardware and software.
Many of the methods and apparatus are described in their most basic form but operations may be added to or deleted from any of the methods and components may be added or subtracted from any of the described apparatus without departing from the basic scope of the present claims. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many further modifications and adaptations may be made. The particular embodiments are not provided as limitations but as illustrations. The scope of the claims is not to be determined by the specific examples provided above but only by the claims below.
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|1||Non-Final Office Action (dated Apr. 14, 2006), U.S. Appl. No. 10/890,678, Filing Date - Jul. 13, 2004, First Named Inventor: Steven B. Waltman, (12 pages).|
|2||Non-Final Office Action (dated Aug. 8, 2007), U.S. Appl. No. 10/890,678, Filing Date - Jul. 13, 2004, First Named Inventor: Steven B. Waltman, (9 pages).|
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|5||PCT Search Report, PCT/US/07/00910, International Filing Date, Jan. 11, 2007, Mediaur Technologies, Inc., mailing date, Oct. 16, 2007.|
|6||Per-Simon Kildal, et al., "Scalar Horn with Shaped Lens Improves Cassegrain Efficiency", IEEE Transactions on Anetnnas and Propagation, vol. AP-32, No. 10, Oct. 1984 (pp. 1094-1100).|
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|US9154966||Apr 17, 2015||Oct 6, 2015||At&T Intellectual Property I, Lp||Surface-wave communications and methods thereof|
|US9209902||Dec 10, 2013||Dec 8, 2015||At&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.||Quasi-optical coupler|
|U.S. Classification||343/779, 343/776, 343/785, 343/786|
|Cooperative Classification||H01Q19/17, H01Q19/132|
|European Classification||H01Q19/13B, H01Q19/17|
|Jan 12, 2006||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: MEDIAUR TECHNOLOGIES, INC., CALIFORNIA
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:WALTMAN, STEVEN;REEL/FRAME:017490/0290
Effective date: 20060112
|Dec 3, 2012||REMI||Maintenance fee reminder mailed|
|Apr 21, 2013||LAPS||Lapse for failure to pay maintenance fees|
|Jun 11, 2013||FP||Expired due to failure to pay maintenance fee|
Effective date: 20130421