Research in adaptive beamforming for satellite communications

The results of a study on adaptive beam forming and interference cancelling pertinent to communication satellites are herein reported. The study was an extension of an earlier effort aimed at overcoming the effects of uncertainty in the formation of a pointing vector. That work led to the Hybrid Array which utilized prior information on signal direction and structure. The work herein described deals with: (1) improvements and alternatives to existing schemes of reducing sensitivity to pointing error; and (2) extensions to wideband schemes which are not overly sensitive to pointing error; and (3) methods to aid in the accurate determination of the pointing vector.