Regional programming in a direct broadcast satellite
US6266329A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 28, 2000 |
| Grant date | Jul 24, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 28, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04H40/90
- WIPO fieldTelecommunications
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
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.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.