Methods to reclaim unused throughput in an SDARS system
View Patent ↗Systems, algorithms and methods for reclaiming unused portions of a satellite broadcast service's bandwidth for new services, utilizing higher performance coding techniques to yield better throughput, are presented. Reclamation of bandwidth can be achieved in a way that is invisible to a legacy receiver, and that does not interfere with its reception of a legacy signal. New data may be transmitted within a legacy transmission frame, for example within its cluster structure, using the same modulation and synchronization as used for the legacy data. In other embodiments, one or more clusters or subdivisions with only new data may be transmitted, using the same or different modulation and synchronization as the legacy data clusters, but now employing a higher performing FEC and data interleaving structure on those clusters which contain only new data to yield an increase in available throughput.
1. A method of reclaiming unused legacy bandwidth in a broadcasting system having a broadcast transmission frame with at least two divisions, comprising:
inserting new content data into at least one transmission frame division of at least one transmission frame, at a head end of a legacy baseband layer, the at least one division also containing legacy data; and
transmitting the at least one transmission frame division using the same modulation and synchronization as the legacy data in the transmission frame,
wherein said inserting and transmitting are performed such that a legacy receiver would not observe the new data, but receivers configured to decode the new content data would observe the new data, and wherein the legacy transmission frame data is modulated using both a primary and a secondary layer of modulation, the new content data is modulated at the primary layer of modulation, and the secondary layer of modulation operates on both the legacy content data and the new content data.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending information describing either the new content data or channels where the new content data may be accessed, in a manner that legacy receivers receiving the transmission frame will not decode it; and
sending extraction information relative to the new content data through one or more out of band messaging schemes.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending extraction information relative to the new content data within the at least one transmission frame, said extraction information arranged to instruct a specially configured receiver how to separate the new content data from other data in any division during decoding.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein any division containing both new content data and legacy data is interleaved with other divisions of the transmission frame, and wherein the transmission frame division is one of a cluster, a cluster segment, a channel, or a physical channel.