Patent ID: 8660481

Claim:
A broadcast signal source for providing broadcast data input signal to a spot beam satellite broadcasting system, the broadcast signal source comprising: a space-time encoder module for encoding the single broadcast data input signal into a plurality of space-time encoded signals; and a transmitter configured to simultaneously transmit the plurality of space-time encoded signals to a spot beam satellite, each of the plurality of space-time encoded signals corresponding to a different one of a plurality of spot beams such that the spot beam satellite simultaneously broadcasts the space-time encoded signals using the same frequency in the plurality of spot beams to spot beam coverage areas comprising a contiguous geographical area wherein the spot beam satellite broadcasting system comprises a constellation of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, provide the plurality of space-time encoded signals to a broadcast coverage area, wherein a number of the plurality of spot varies with time, and wherein the space-time encoder module dynamically updates to produce a number of the plurality of space-time encoded signals corresponding to the number of the plurality of spot beams; and wherein the spot beam satellite comprises a Ka-band spot beam satellite configured to transmit at a first frequency using the plurality of spot beams and to transmit at a second frequency using a second plurality of spot beams, and wherein the space-time encoder module is configured to encode the single broadcast data input signal using an orthogonal space-time code, and wherein the single broadcast data input signal is separately encoded for the plurality of spot beams and for the second plurality of spot beams.