Upstream broad beam diversity with interference cancellation
View Patent ↗A satellite communication system is provided according to one embodiment of the invention. The satellite communication system includes a gateway with first and second antennas. The first antenna receives a signal from a first satellite that includes at least a first signal from a first user. The second antenna receives a second signal from a second satellite, that includes at least a second primary signal from a second user and a version of the first signal. The gateway may include circuitry to isolate the first signal from the second signal. The gateway may also include a combiner configured to combine the first signal from the first satellite and the first signal isolated from the second signal. Various other embodiments are disclosed that isolate a secondary signal received from a satellite and combine the secondary signal with the same signal received from other antennas at the gateway.
1. A satellite communication gateway comprising:
a first antenna configured to receive a signal from a first satellite, wherein the signal received from the first satellite includes at least a first signal from a first user;
a second antenna configured to receive a second signal from a second satellite, wherein the second signal includes at least a second primary signal from a second user and a second secondary signal;
a demodulator-remodulator configured to isolate the second secondary signal from the second signal; and
a combiner configured to synchronize the first signal and the second signal and combine the first signal and the second secondary signal to generate a received signal having a higher apparent signal strength than that of the first signal alone,
wherein the combiner is a maximal ratio combiner, and
wherein the second secondary signal includes a version of the first signal.
2. The satellite communication gateway of claim 1 , further comprising:
a third antenna configured to receive a third signal from a third satellite, wherein the signal received from the third satellite includes at least a third primary signal from a third user and a third secondary signal;
a second demodulator-remodulator configured to isolate the third secondary signal from the third signal;
wherein the combiner is configured to combine the first signal, the second secondary signal and the third secondary signal to generate the received signal,
wherein the third secondary signal includes a version of the first signal.
3. The satellite communication gateway of claim 2 , wherein the first user does not lease access to the third satellite.
4. The satellite communication gateway of claim 1 , wherein the first user leases access to the first satellite.
5. The satellite communication gateway of claim 1 , wherein the first user does not lease access to the second satellite.
6. A satellite communication method comprising:
receiving a signal from a first satellite, wherein the signal from the first satellite includes at least a first signal from a first user;
receiving a signal from a second satellite, wherein the signal from the second satellite includes at least a second primary signal from a second user and a second secondary signal;
canceling the second primary signal from the second signal to generate a modified second signal; and
synchronizing the first signal and second signal and combining the modified second signal and the first signal to generate a received signal having a higher apparent signal strength than that of the first signal alone,
wherein the combining includes maximal ratio combining, and
wherein the second secondary signal includes a version of the first signal.
7. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising delaying either the first or the second signal prior to the combining.
8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the canceling includes demodulating the second signal using noise canceling techniques.
9. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the first user leases access to the first satellite.
10. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the first user does not lease access to the second satellite.
11. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising:
receiving a third signal from a third satellite, wherein the third signal from the third satellite includes at least a third primary signal from a third user and a third secondary signal;
canceling the third primary signal from the third signal to generate a modified third signal; and
combining the modified third signal, the modified second signal, and the first signal to generate the received signal,
wherein the third secondary signal includes a version of the first signal.
12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the first user does not lease access to the third satellite.
13. A satellite communication method comprising:
receiving a first signal from a first satellite, wherein the first signal includes at least a first primary signal from a first user and a second signal from a second user;
receiving a third signal from a second satellite, wherein the third signal includes at least a third primary signal from a third user and a version of the second signal;
isolating the second signal from the first signal;
isolating the version of the second signal from the third signal; and
synchronizing the first signal and second signal and the second signal isolated from the first signal and the second signal isolated from the third signal to generate a received signal having a higher apparent signal strength than that of the second signal alone, wherein the combining includes maximal ratio combining.
14. The satellite communication method according to claim 13 , wherein the second user does not lease access to the first satellite and the second user does not lease access to the third satellite.