Patent · US Active

Rapid in-the-field auto-alignment for radio frequency and free-space optical data communication transceivers

US9264137B2 · kind B2 · utility

4Cited by
7References
29Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateMar 5, 2013
Grant dateFeb 16, 2016
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 13, 2034

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04B10/1125
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A local communications apparatus is aligned with a remote apparatus, each apparatus comprising radio frequency (RF) and free space optical (FSO) transceivers with substantially parallel boresight. Coarse alignment is performed using the RF transceiver and fine alignment is performed using the FSO transceiver. A patterned search is performed to locate the RF signal from the remote apparatus and known features of the intensity profile are utilized to locate the global maximum, thus coarsely aligning the pair of apparatuses. A second patterned search is performed to locate the FSO signal from the remote apparatus and an iterative step-search is used to align the FSO signal centroid with the FSO transceiver, thus finely aligning the pair of apparatuses.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.