Patent ID: 11888576
Assignee: THALES
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 6:
7. A multi-spot space communication system for suppressing the unlink interference signals generated between geographically neighbouring satellite access stations, the system comprising:
a telecommunications satellite including an on-board multi-spot communication payload;
a first set of a whole number N, greater than or equal to 2, of satellite access stations that are geographically neighboring so that they create interference with each other on at least one satellite access; and
a second set of user terminals;
the multi-spot communication payload comprising one or more satellite reception antennas, a satellite transmission antenna, and N repeater channels, wherein the one or more satellite reception antenna is configured to receive, in an uplink channel in a reception frequency band, simultaneously and in parallel from N neighboring reception spots, N different reception. radio signals transmitted by the N satellite access stations respectively, each satellite access station being located in a corresponding unique neighboring reception spot, and each N different reception radio signal being delivered by a unique reception source corresponding to the neighboring reception spot of the one or more satellite reception antennas;
wherein the satellite transmission antenna is configured to transmit in a downlink channel. in a transmission frequency band, simultaneously and in parallel towards N neighboring transmission spots, the N different reception radio signals received, amplified, and uniformly frequency transposed each of the N neighboring transmission spots covering the corresponding satellite access station having a coverage identical to that of the unique reception spot;
wherein each of the N repeater channels is nominally contained between the corresponding unique reception source and a corresponding transmission source of N transmission sources, and wherein each of the N repeater channels comprises, downstream of the corresponding unique reception source, a reception amplifier and an RF divider with one input and N outputs, and a transposition frequency converter and reducer connected to an output of the RE divider,
wherein the second set of user terminals are distributed over the N neighboring transmission spots;
wherein the N satellite access stations comprises a first satellite access station corresponding to a first neighboring transmission spot of the N neighboring transmission spots, the first neighboring transmission spot covering the first satellite access station, and wherein the first satellite access station comprises a communication spectrum monitoring device;
wherein the multi-spot communication payload comprises switches of an input switch assembly and switches of an output, selection ring, wherein the switches of the input switch assembly are connected between input terminals of repeater channels and reception sources of the one or more satellite reception antennas, and wherein the switches of the output selection ring are connected between output terminals of the N repeater channels and the N transmission sources of the transmission antenna; and
wherein the multi-spot communication payload comprises at least one opposition matrix, the at least one opposition matrix comprising N input rows, a first input row of the N input rows being a direct input row connected directly to an output of a first divider of N dividers, and each of the remaining N-1 input rows being a derived opposition row connected respectively to a corresponding one of the remaining N dividers at one output, wherein each derived opposition row comprises a different remotely controllable attenuator or phase shifter, wherein the at least one opposition matrix comprises a single output terminal connected to an input terminal of a frequency transposition converter, and wherein the at least one opposition matrix comprises a combiner with N combiner inputs and one combiner output, the combiner supplied at, each of its N combiner inputs by a corresponding one of the N input rows, and the one combiner output connected to the single output terminal of the at least one opposition matrix.