Patent ID: 6944140
Filing Date: 2005-09-13
Classification: H04B

Abstract:
1. A communication satellite using beam hopping to reach multiple terrestrial cells in a beam laydown pattern, the satellite comprising: means for receiving packets of uplink data for transmission through multiple downlink beams to multiple hop locations corresponding to multiple terrestrial cells; a multiple beam downlink antenna comprising a plurality of radiating elements, each of which is responsible for generating an independently controllable downlink beam to one of an equal plurality of terrestrial cells that are contiguously arrayed in a beam laydown pattern covering a terrestrial region; a self addressed packet switch for routine unlink data packets to a memory, wherein each unlink data packet contains destination information; and means for controlling selection of downlink beams in a beam hopping manner, including a switch that directs a waveform derived in part from each uplink data packet to a selected radiating element of the multiple beam downlink antenna in response to a hop selection signal derived from the destination information in the packet; wherein the multiple beam downlink antenna directs the waveforms derived from the uplink data packets, by beam hopping to the appropriate destination terrestrial cells; wherein the switch also provides a color control signal to each downlink beam, to minimize interference between downlink channels; and wherein the memory comprises queues assigned to respective hop locations.