Patent ID: 11916647
Assignee: ROCKWELL COLLINS, INC.
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A communications sub-system, the communications sub-system comprising:
a phased array comprising:
a first antenna element configured to transmit and receive, in a first operating mode, one or more first radio frequency signals along a first directional link, wherein the first directional link comprises a line-of-sight link, wherein the one or more first radio frequency signals comprise electromagnetic waves in a V-band and having a frequency between 40 gigahertz and 75 gigahertz; and
a second antenna element configured to transmit and receive, in a second operating mode, one or more second radio frequency signals along a second directional link, wherein the second directional link comprises a beyond-line-of-sight link with one or more low-earth orbit satellites, wherein the one or more second radio frequency signals comprise electromagnetic waves in a Ka-band and having a frequency between 26 gigahertz and 40 gigahertz; and

one or more controllers having one or more processors, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute a set of written program instructions stored in one or more memory units, wherein the set of written program instructions is configured to cause the controller to provide one or more control signals to at least one of the first antenna element or the second antenna element;
wherein the communications sub-system is communicatively coupled to the one or more low-earth orbit satellites via the second antenna element, and wherein the communications sub-system is configured to transmit to and receive from the one or more low-earth orbit satellites the one or more second radio frequency signals along the second directional link;
wherein prior to transmission of the one or more first radio frequency signals, the communications sub-system performs one or more conversion functions to extract data transmitted from the one or more low-earth orbit satellites via the one or more second radio frequency signals along the second directional link, wherein the data is transmitted via the one or more first radio frequency signals along the first directional link;
wherein the communications sub-system includes a system architecture comprising a physical layer, a data link layer, and a network layer; wherein the physical layer includes the first antenna element and the second antenna element;
wherein the data link layer is configured such that each of the first antenna element and the second antenna element are controlled by the network layer simultaneously.