Patent ID: 6456824
Filing Date: 2002-09-24
Classification: H04B,Y02D

Abstract:
A communication system, comprising:at least one spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit, said spacecraft providing a plurality of beams on the surface of the earth; and a plurality of ground stations, individual ones of which are located in one of said beams for transmitting uplink signals to said spacecraft; wherein said spacecraft is comprised of a plurality of receivers for receiving a plurality of the uplink signals in separate channels in said beam from ground stations, a frequency translator for translating the received uplink signals to a transmission frequency of a plurality of downlink signals, a plurality of channel amplifiers, each channel amplifier adapted to amplify a respective transmitted uplink signal and each channel amplifier being gain controlled by a corresponding one of said ground stations, and a plurality of transmitters for transmitting the plurality of downlink signals within the same beams as the corresponding uplink signals; and wherein each said transmitter is comprised of a combiner for combining together a selected plurality of frequency translated channel amplified signals and a power amplifier for amplifying the combined plurality of frequency translated channel amplified signals, and further comprising an output splitter for separating the amplified combined plurality of frequency translated channel amplified signals into a plurality of downlink signals in a plurality of said beams.