Patent ID: 6272317
Filing Date: 2001-08-07
Classification: H04B

Abstract:
A satellite comprising:a plurality of beam inputs;an uplink antenna having a plurality of antenna receiving elements and a first reflector positioned adjacent to said plurality of antenna receiving elements;a receive beam forming network coupled to said plurality of antenna receiving elements, said receiving beam forming network having a plurality of tunable receiving beam forming elements, each of said tunable receiving beam forming elements coupled to one of said antenna receiving elements and each of said tunable receiving beam forming elements having a receiving phase coefficient;a downlink antenna having a plurality of antenna transmitting elements and a second reflector positioned adjacent to said plurality of antenna transmitting elements;a transmitting beam forming network coupled to said plurality of antenna transmitting elements, said transmitting beam forming network having a plurality of tunable transmitting beam forming elements, each of said tunable transmitting beam forming elements coupled to one of said antenna transmitting elements and each of said tunable transmitting beam forming elements having a transmitting phase coefficient;a controller coupled to said transmitting beam forming network, said receiving beam forming network and said beam forming inputs, said controller calculating and adjusting said transmitting and receiving phase coefficients in response to said beam forming inputs, said controller selecting either fixed spot coverage area or a scanned spot coverage by generating respective uplink spot beams and uplink scanned spot beams or by generating respective downlink spot beams and downlink scanned spot beams for each of the receiving and transmitting antenna elements,said first reflector directing both said uplink spot beams and said uplink scanned spot beams and said second reflector directing both said downlink spot beams and said downlink scanned spot beams.