IP Library › Granted Patent US 10,419,926

Granted Patent B2

US 10,419,926 · App. 16/189,863 · Granted Sep 17, 2019

Secured multi-payload antennas operators operations

Inventors: Yi-Feng James Chen (Chicago, IL); Ryan R. Telkamp (Chicago, IL); Heidi E. Ziegler (Chicago, IL)

Assignee: The Boeing Company

H04W12/02 H01Q1/28 H01Q3/24 H01Q15/14 H04B7/185 H04B7/18565 H04L63/04 H04L63/0428 H04Q9/00 H04L63/0272 H04L2209/80 H04L2209/84

View Patent ↗

Loading inventors, assignments & file history…

Monitor This Case

Get email alerts when status or documents change.

Order Certified Copies

Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.

Order via The Patent Place →

Pre-filled with this patent's details

Quick Facts

Patent No.: US 10,419,926
App. No.: 16/189,863
Granted: Sep 17, 2019
Kind: B2

External Links

USPTO Patent Center↗ Full Patent PDF↗

Abstract

A disclosed method for secured multi-payload antennas operators operations comprises generating, by an antenna operations center (AOC), AOC commands using an antenna location pointing request for each of at least one antenna associated with each of at least one customer. The method further comprises transmitting, by a satellite operation center (SOC), the AOC commands and SOC commands to a vehicle via a ground antenna, where the SOC commands are related to at least one antenna associated with a host. Also, the method comprises generating customer antenna gimballing commands by using the AOC commands, and generating host antenna gimballing commands by using the SOC commands. Further, the method comprises gimballing respectively each of the antenna(s) associated with each of the customer(s) by using the customer antenna gimballing commands, and gimballing respectively each of the antenna(s) associated with the host by using the host antenna gimballing commands.

Claims (108)

1. A method for secured multi-payload antennas operators operations, the method comprising:

transmitting, by at least one customer, an antenna location pointing request for each of at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer to an antenna operations center (AOC);

generating, by the AOC, unencrypted AOC commands using the antenna location pointing request for each of the at least one antenna;

transmitting, by the AOC, the unencrypted AOC commands to a satellite operation center (SOC);

encrypting, by the SOC, the unencrypted AOC commands utilizing a communication security (COMSEC) variety to generate encrypted AOC commands;

encrypting, by the SOC, unencrypted SOC commands utilizing the COMSEC variety to generate encrypted SOC commands,

wherein the unencrypted SOC commands are related to at least one antenna associated with a host;

transmitting, by the SOC, the encrypted AOC commands and the encrypted SOC commands to a ground antenna;

transmitting, by the ground antenna, the encrypted AOC commands and the encrypted SOC commands to a vehicle;

decrypting, by a communication security module on the vehicle, the encrypted AOC commands utilizing the COMSEC variety to generate the unencrypted AOC commands;

decrypting, by the communication security module on the vehicle, the encrypted SOC commands utilizing the COMSEC variety to generate the unencrypted SOC commands;

generating, by at least one processor, customer antenna gimballing commands for each respective the at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer by using the unencrypted AOC commands;

generating, by the at least one processor, host antenna gimballing commands for each respective the at least one antenna associated with the host by using the unencrypted SOC commands;

gimballing respectively each of the at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer by using the customer antenna gimballing commands;

gimballing respectively each of the at least one antenna associated with the host by using the host antenna gimballing commands;

generating, by the at least one processor, unencrypted telemetry by using antenna gimballing telemetry;

encrypting, by the communication security module, the unencrypted telemetry using the COMSEC variety to generate encrypted telemetry;

transmitting, by the vehicle, the encrypted telemetry to the ground antenna;

transmitting, by the ground antenna, the encrypted telemetry to the SOC;

decrypting, by the SOC, the encrypted telemetry utilizing the COMSEC variety to generate the unencrypted telemetry;

transmitting, by the SOC, the unencrypted telemetry to the AOC;

generating, by the AOC, an antenna pointing location for each of the at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer by using the unencrypted telemetry; and

transmitting, by the AOC, the antenna pointing location for each of the at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer respectively to each of the at least one customer.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer comprises at least one antenna reflector.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one antenna associated with the host comprises at least one antenna reflector.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle is one of a satellite, an aircraft, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or a space plane.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the COMSEC variety comprises at least one of at least one encryption key or at least one algorithm.

6. A method for secured multi-payload antennas operators operations, the method comprising:

transmitting, by at least one customer, an antenna location pointing request for each of at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer to a client;

generating, by the client, unencrypted customer commands using the antenna location pointing request for each of the at least one antenna;

transmitting, by the client, the unencrypted customer commands to a satellite operation center (SOC) primary server;

encrypting, by the SOC primary server, the unencrypted customer commands utilizing a communication security (COMSEC) variety to generate encrypted customer commands;

encrypting, by the SOC primary server, unencrypted SOC commands utilizing the COMSEC variety to generate encrypted SOC commands,

wherein the unencrypted SOC commands are related to at least one antenna associated with a host;

transmitting, by the SOC primary server, the encrypted customer commands and the encrypted SOC commands to a ground antenna;

transmitting, by the ground antenna, the encrypted customer commands and the encrypted SOC commands to a vehicle;

decrypting, by a communication security module on the vehicle, the encrypted customer commands utilizing the COMSEC variety to generate the unencrypted customer commands;

decrypting, by the communication security module on the vehicle, the encrypted SOC commands utilizing the COMSEC variety to generate the unencrypted SOC commands;

generating, by the at least one processor, host antenna gimballing commands for each respective the at least one antenna associated with the host by using the unencrypted SOC commands;

gimballing respectively each of the at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer by using the customer antenna gimballing commands;

gimballing respectively each of the at least one antenna associated with the host by using the host antenna gimballing commands;

generating, by the at least one processor, unencrypted telemetry by using antenna gimballing telemetry;

encrypting, by the communication security module, the unencrypted telemetry using the COMSEC variety to generate encrypted telemetry;

transmitting, by the vehicle, the encrypted telemetry to the ground antenna;

transmitting, by the ground antenna, the encrypted telemetry to the SOC primary server;

decrypting, by the SOC primary server, the encrypted telemetry utilizing the COMSEC variety to generate the unencrypted telemetry;

transmitting, by the SOC primary server, the unencrypted telemetry to the client;

generating, by the client, an antenna pointing location for each of the at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer by using the unencrypted telemetry; and

transmitting, by the client, the antenna pointing location for each of the at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer respectively to each of the at least one customer.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer comprises at least one antenna reflector.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the at least one antenna associated with the host comprises at least one antenna reflector.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the vehicle is one of a satellite, an aircraft, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or a space plane.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the COMSEC variety comprises at least one of at least one encryption key or at least one algorithm.

11. A method for secured multi-payload antennas operators operations, the method comprising:

transmitting, by at least one customer, an antenna location pointing request for each of at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer to an antenna operations center (AOC);

generating, by the AOC, unencrypted AOC commands using the antenna location pointing request for each of the at least one antenna;

encrypting, by the AOC, the unencrypted AOC commands utilizing a second communication security (COMSEC) variety to generate encrypted AOC commands;

encrypting, by a satellite operation center (SOC), unencrypted SOC commands utilizing a first COMSEC variety to generate encrypted SOC commands,

wherein the unencrypted SOC commands are related to at least one antenna associated with a host;

transmitting, by the SOC, the encrypted SOC commands to the AOC;

transmitting, by the AOC, the encrypted AOC commands and the encrypted SOC commands to a ground antenna;

transmitting, by the ground antenna, the encrypted AOC commands and the encrypted SOC commands to a vehicle;

decrypting, by a first communication security module on the vehicle, the encrypted SOC commands utilizing the first COMSEC variety to generate the unencrypted SOC commands;

decrypting, by a second communication security module on the vehicle, the encrypted AOC commands utilizing the second COMSEC variety to generate the unencrypted AOC commands;

generating, by the at least one processor, host antenna gimballing commands for each respective the at least one antenna associated with the host by using the unencrypted SOC commands;

gimballing respectively each of the at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer by using the customer antenna gimballing commands;

gimballing respectively each of the at least one antenna associated with the host by using the host antenna gimballing commands;

generating, by the at least one processor, unencrypted telemetry by using the antenna gimballing telemetry;

encrypting, by the second communication security module, the unencrypted telemetry using the second COMSEC variety to generate encrypted telemetry;

transmitting, by the vehicle, the encrypted telemetry to the ground antenna;

transmitting, by the ground antenna, the encrypted telemetry to the AOC;

decrypting, by the AOC, the encrypted telemetry using the second COMSEC variety to generate the unencrypted telemetry;

generating, by the AOC, an antenna pointing location for each of the at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer by using the unencrypted telemetry;

transmitting, by the AOC, the antenna pointing location for each of the at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer respectively to each of the at least one customer;

generating, by the AOC, SOC telemetry by using the unencrypted telemetry; and

transmitting, by the AOC, the SOC telemetry to the SOC.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer comprises at least one antenna reflector.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the at least one antenna associated with the host comprises at least one antenna reflector.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the vehicle is one of a satellite, an aircraft, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or a space plane.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first COMSEC variety comprises at least one of at least one encryption key or at least one algorithm; and

the second COMSEC variety comprises at least one of at least one encryption key or at least one algorithm.

16. A method for secured multi-payload antennas operators operations, the method comprising:

transmitting, by at least one customer, an antenna location pointing request for each of at least one antenna associated with each of the at least one customer to a satellite operation center (SOC);

generating, by the SOC, unencrypted customer commands using the antenna location pointing request for each of the at least one antenna;

encrypting, by the SOC, the unencrypted customer commands utilizing a communication security (COMSEC) variety to generate encrypted customer commands;

encrypting, by the SOC, unencrypted SOC commands utilizing the COMSEC variety to generate encrypted SOC commands,

wherein the unencrypted SOC commands are related to at least one antenna associated with a host;

transmitting, by the SOC, the encrypted customer commands and the encrypted SOC commands to a ground antenna;