Satellite communication methods and payloads are described. The payload and methods are designed to enable effective use of carrier signals in the guard band region of a channelized band of spectrum. An on-board digital channelizer may implement a band edge power monitor for measuring power spectral density in the band edges of a channel and, if it exceeds a preset threshold level, downscaling the signal amplitude in the band edges to prevent hardware damage to the payload. The channelizer may further implement a band edge gain adjustment filter for shaping the overall frequency response to flatten the response across adjacent channels, including through the guard band region between the passbands of the adjacent channels.

This is a CIP (continuation-in-part) to our previous patent, High Throughput Satellites and Methods of Operating High Throughput Satellites for Relaying Data between Low Earth Orbit Satellites to Endpoints (US10523312B1).

This new patent includes new claims about the concept of altering MODCOD operations (based on adaptive coding and modulation (ACM) functions at the ground modem) for maintaining the link performance to mitigate rain fade or other weather conditions by requesting the LEO to change the MODCOD of on-board modem. Further, the high throughput satellite can configure an on-board digital channelizer for routing data transmission to alternate ground terminals where rain attenuation effects may be less prevalent.

A method and system for locating the source of an unwanted signal (whether malicious or unintentional) to a multi-beam high throughput satellite, which is more susceptible to uplink interference due to the involvement of two-way communication to household and mobile users, i.e. uploading and downloading at the same time. This method makes use of the relative power level differences between interference signals received by the victim spot beam and co-colored nearby spot beams on the same satellite.

This is a CIP (continuation-in-part) to our previous patent, Dual-band communication satellite system and method (US10291317B2). The new patent includes the use of dual-band or multi-band feeds and a digital channelizer for routing RF signals among spot beams in a multi-band spot beam layout to increase the link availability due to rain attenuation at high frequency.

This is a CIP to our previous patent, Methods and Systems for Operating a High Throughput Satellite (US10291315B1). The satellite has multiple modes of operation and transitions between them in response to the spectrum fill rate.

This patent incorporates the use of at least one of the following techniques in the first operating mode, including altering color re-use patterns to increase or reduce number of colors, using intra-beam geographic sub-division, or precoding downlink signals. In response to the spectrum fill rate, the satellite would additionally employ another one of the techniques in the second operating mode.

A high throughput satellite (HTS) and a method of operating the HTS for relaying data between a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite and a target ground station, where the HTS provides spot beams for a spot beam coverage area. The method of operating the HTS includes: determining an estimated trajectory of an orbiting LEO satellite; assigning a plurality of assigned spot beams having a matching color re-use polarization; and transmitting assignments of the plurality of assigned spot beams to the high throughput satellite to cause the high throughput satellite to maintain the inter-satellite link via a first spot beam and one or more assigned subsequent spot beams having the matching color re-use polarization.

This is a CIP to our previous patent, Methods and systems for improving spectrum utilization for satellite communications (US100506981B2).

Satellite communication methods and payloads are described. An imbalance in uplink and downlink availability may be mitigated by harvesting guard band channels from different frequency bands through digitizing spectrum technique. 

A satellite payload is described with dual multiplexers having partially overlapping channels and a dual feed configuration. In one downlink implementation, unused regional band spectrum may be dynamically allocated to a spot beam. In one uplink implementation, regional band spectrum may be shared by a spot beam using partial separation of the regional uplink location from the spot beam coverage area and digital cancellation techniques.

A high throughput satellite and a method of operating a high throughput satellite. The satellite has multiple modes of operation and transitions between them in response to the spectrum fill rate. Modes of operation may include altering color re-use patterns to increase or reduce number of colors, using intra-beam geographic sub-division, or precoding downlink signals.

Dual-band satellite communication systems and methods are described. A dual-band satellite communication system is described with an array of feeds. The array includes single band feeds and one or more multi-band feeds. The multi-band feeds provide dual-band spot beams. Dual-band spot beams include a first frequency band spot beam and a second frequency band spot beam. A spot beam layout may be provided when a shared reflector for the array of feeds is provided. The first frequency band beamwidth may be smaller than a second frequency band beamwidth and the number of multi-band feeds in the array of feeds may be less than the number of single band feeds.

Satellite communication methods and payloads are described. An imbalance in uplink and downlink availability may be mitigated through digitizing uplink spectrum, extracting guard band channels, and grouping the guard band channels to create a composite channel. The composite channel is converted to analog and RF up-converted, amplified, and multiplexed with other downlink analog channels before being transmitted to Earth. The guard bands may be from the same band of spectrum or different bands of spectrum, such as C band, Ka band, Ku band, etc. A satellite payload is described with dual output multiplexers having partially overlapping channels and a dual feed configuration. In one downlink implementation, unused regional band spectrum may be dynamically allocated to a spot beam. In one uplink implementation, regional band spectrum may be shared by a spot beam using spatial separation of the regional uplink location from the spot beam coverage area and digital cancellation techniques.

Methods for providing high-speed connectivity to an aircraft in flight from a satellite. Example methods include transmitting first radio frequency signals from a wide-beam antenna at the satellite at a beamwidth of at least 6 degrees orbital arc to provide a wide coverage area. The first radio frequency signals are transmitted at a first frequency of at least 10 gigahertz and at a low equivalent isotropic radiated power. The method also includes receiving second radio frequency signals from a mobile antenna located on the aircraft, wherein the second radio frequency signals are received at a second frequency of at least 13.75 gigahertz, and the second frequency is different than the first frequency.