Patents by Inventor Michael J. Simons

Michael J. Simons has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20200186844
    Abstract: An example method of mapping a plurality of modulation symbols of a plurality of physical layer pipes present in a frame to a resource grid of data cells for the frame is described. The modulation symbols of the plurality of physical layer pipes are represented by a two-dimensional array comprising the modulation symbol values for the plurality of physical layer pipes and the resource grid of data cells is represented by a one-dimensional sequentially indexed array.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 6, 2019
    Publication date: June 11, 2020
    Applicant: ONE MEDIA, LLC
    Inventors: Mark EARNSHAW, Michael J. SIMON, Kevin A. SHELBY
  • Publication number: 20200178121
    Abstract: The ATSC 3.0 physical layer broadcast standard is extended with new OFDM numerology, L1 signaling and frame structure aligned with 5G. This is done to enable improved broadcast mobility and convergence 5G release 16 as a Non-3GPP access network. The 5G core network and Broadcast core network interwork over defined interfaces to enable convergence layer 3. This enables improvements of broadcast physical layer for physics of broadcast. The 5G unicast physical layer is enhanced for physics of unicast, and then both are converged at layer 3. This is novel and has many benefits compared to the legacy LTE broadcast method (e.g., Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (eMBMS)), which combines both broadcast and unicast into a single shared LTE frame at layer 1. The eMBMS method is then improved for dominate unicast mode in shared L1 frame. The result is the broadcast performance and efficiency in eMBMS are less than optimal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 27, 2019
    Publication date: June 4, 2020
    Applicant: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael J. SIMON, Mark A. AITKEN
  • Patent number: 10652624
    Abstract: A Next Generation Broadcast Platform (NGBP) is disclosed that utilizes 5G software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) technologies. The NGBP is designed to enable a new paradigm for broadcasters, wherein the model of fixed wireless spectrum access granted only to the licensees of the spectrum is replaced by a flexible model in which licensed spectrum is pooled together and allocated dynamically to broadcast licensees as well as outside tenants. The NGBP is implemented using SDN/NFV technology, and includes a broadcast market exchange (BMX) entity that allocates the spectrum between tenants based on service level agreements (SLAs) with those users. The NGBP also includes an internet protocol (IP) core and a broadcast centralized radio access network (BC-RAN) which apply the major network functions to broadcaster content in accordance with the determinations of the BMX.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2020
    Assignee: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael J. Simon, Mark A. Aitken
  • Patent number: 10652849
    Abstract: Systems and methods for one-way time transfer using physical layer signaling are disclosed herein. According to some examples, a method includes generating timing information based on a clock of a transmitting device, where the timing information comprises a timestamp and metadata. The method further includes generating a preamble of a frame, where the preamble includes the timestamp and the metadata of the timing information. The method also includes forming a frame, where the frame comprises a bootstrap, the preamble, and a payload, and transmitting the frame to a receiver device. The one-way time transfer systems and methods of this disclosure can serve mobile devices that entail quick and reliable establishment of a clock.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2020
    Assignee: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
    Inventor: Michael J. Simon
  • Patent number: 10630411
    Abstract: A method for operating a transmitting device to communicate with a receiving device is described herein. The method includes the step of the transmitting device selecting a root index value from a set of root index values. The method further includes the step of the transmitting device generating a frequency domain Constant Amplitude Zero Auto-Correlation sequence based on the selected root index value. The method further includes the step of the transmitting device modulating the Constant Amplitude Zero Auto-Correlation sequence by a pseudo-noise sequence. The method further includes the step of the transmitting device generating an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing symbol, wherein the frequency domain Constant Amplitude Zero Auto-Correlation sequence modulated by the pseudo-noise sequence defines subcarrier values for the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing symbol.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2020
    Assignee: One Media, LLC
    Inventors: Kevin A. Shelby, Michael J. Simon, Mark Earnshaw, Zahir Jaffer Raza
  • Patent number: 10602204
    Abstract: An example method of mapping a plurality of modulation symbols of a plurality of physical layer pipes present in a frame to a resource grid of data cells for the frame is described. The modulation symbols of the plurality of physical layer pipes are represented by a two-dimensional array comprising the modulation symbol values for the plurality of physical layer pipes and the resource grid of data cells is represented by a one-dimensional sequentially indexed array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2020
    Assignee: One Media, LLC
    Inventors: Mark Earnshaw, Michael J. Simon, Kevin A. Shelby
  • Patent number: 10574500
    Abstract: A base station may generate and transmit a transport stream including a sequence of frames. A frame may include a plurality of partitions, where each partition includes a corresponding set of OFDM symbols. For each partition, the OFDM symbols in that partition may have a corresponding cyclic prefix size and a corresponding FFT size, allowing different partitions to be targeted for different collections of user devices, e.g., user devices having different expected values of maximum delay spread and/or different ranges of mobility. The base station may also dynamically re-configure the sample rate of each frame, allowing further resolution in control of subcarrier spacing. By allowing the cyclic prefixes of different OFDM symbols to have different lengths, it is feasible to construct a frame that confirms to a set payload duration and has arbitrary values of cyclic prefix size per partition and FFT size per partition. The partitions may be multiplexed in time and/or frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2020
    Assignee: One Media, LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. Simon, Kevin A. Shelby, Mark Earnshaw
  • Patent number: 10568026
    Abstract: An example method for notifying a battery-powered device of the presence of high priority broadcast content while enabling the device to conserve battery power includes generating a high priority broadcast signal. The signal includes a high priority symbol identifier for informing the battery powered device to switch from an idle state to an acquisition state to inspect the remainder of the high priority broadcast signal. The signal further includes a high priority indication symbol for informing the battery powered device to transition to an active state from the acquisition state to receive high priority broadcast content before returning to the idle state. The signal further includes a timing symbol for informing the battery powered device of the minimum time period until a next a high priority broadcast signal should be expected, enabling the battery powered device to remain in the idle state until the next high priority broadcast signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2020
    Assignee: One Media, LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. Simon, Mark Earnshaw, Sandeep Mavuduru Kannappa, Kevin Shelby, Mark A. Aitken
  • Patent number: 10560299
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed relating to generating and receiving radio frames with multiple portions that have different encoding schemes. An apparatus may include one or more processing elements configured to receive, via a wireless radio, wireless data that includes a plurality of portions that each include multiple orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. Different ones of the portions have different frequency transform sizes and different sampling rates. The wireless data may also include control data that indicates the frequency transform sizes and sampling rates for the ones of the portions. The apparatus may select, based on the control data and a determined velocity of the apparatus, one or more but not all of the plurality of portions and may decode the selected one or more portions to determine data represented by the OFDM symbols in the selected one or more portions. Different portions of the wireless data may be adapted for decoding by devices moving at different maximum velocities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2020
    Assignees: COHERENT LOGIX, INCORPORATED, SINCLAIR TELEVISION GROUP, INC.
    Inventors: Michael J. Simon, Kevin A. Shelby, Mark Earnshaw
  • Patent number: 10560756
    Abstract: A new television broadcast model called a Broadcast Market Exchange (BMX) eliminates the inefficiency in spectrum usage, providing maximum flexibility in delivering content through either VHF (for fixed location receiving devices) or UHF (optimized for mobile receiving devices) transmission/propagation. In conjunction with the BMX, a wireless communications system architecture is provided to enable a broadcast augmentation channel. The augmentation channel provides supplementation of the Quality of Service (QoS) of a one way User Datagram Protocol (UDP) delivery environment. The augmentation channel may be comprised of one or more physical delivery mechanisms (wired or wireless), but can be effectively unified for increasing QoS and or scalable levels of service (additional essence) to improve the user experience.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2020
    Assignee: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark A. Aitken, Michael J. Simon
  • Publication number: 20200022100
    Abstract: Systems and methods for one-way time transfer using physical layer signaling are disclosed herein. According to some examples, a method includes generating timing information based on a clock of a transmitting device, where the timing information comprises a timestamp and metadata. The method further includes generating a preamble of a frame, where the preamble includes the timestamp and the metadata of the timing information. The method also includes forming a frame, where the frame comprises a bootstrap, the preamble, and a payload, and transmitting the frame to a receiver device. The one-way time transfer systems and methods of this disclosure can serve mobile devices that entail quick and reliable establishment of a clock.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 16, 2018
    Publication date: January 16, 2020
    Applicant: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
    Inventor: Michael J. SIMON
  • Publication number: 20200014522
    Abstract: An apparatus and a method are provided for generating and transmitting one or more band segmented bootstrap signals. For example, a transmitter may be configured to generate a plurality of sequence numbers and apply cyclic shift to each of the plurality of sequence number. The transmitter is further configured to map each of the shifted sequence numbers to at least one frequency domain subcarrier of a plurality of frequency domain subcarriers, and translate each subcarrier of the plurality of subcarriers to a time domain sequence. Each subcarrier of the plurality of subcarriers may be shifted with respect to other subcarriers of the plurality of subcarriers, thereby aligning each segment of the band segmented bootstrap signals next to each other in the frequency domain.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2019
    Publication date: January 9, 2020
    Applicant: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
    Inventor: Michael J. SIMON
  • Patent number: 10439683
    Abstract: Systems and methods for relaying in broadcast single-frequency networks are disclosed herein. A single-frequency network can be formed in part using transmitters that receive data via a cooperative relay channel instead of a studio-to-transmitter link. In some embodiments, transmitter may use a portion of its transmission time to relay in-band information to the single-frequency network transmitter using time-division multiplexing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
    Inventors: Frederick M. Baumgartner, Michael J. Simon, William Soreth, Thomas Ian Hoots, Marshall Hans Behrmann, Louis Herbert Libin
  • Patent number: 10432384
    Abstract: Apparatuses and methods are provided for generating, transmitting, receiving, and decoding one or more band segmented bootstrap signals and one or more corresponding partitioned post bootstrap signals. For example, a transmitter is configured to generate a first set of symbols and a second set of symbols, where the first set of symbols includes information about the second set of symbols. The transmitter is further configured to generate a third set of symbols and a fourth set of symbols, where the third set of symbols includes information about the fourth set of symbols. The transmitter is also configured to generate a data frame including the first, second, third, and fourth set of symbols. A bandwidth of the data frame includes a first segment and a second segment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2019
    Assignee: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
    Inventor: Michael J. Simon
  • Publication number: 20190268195
    Abstract: A base station may generate and transmit a transport stream including a sequence of frames. A frame may include a plurality of partitions, where each partition includes a corresponding set of OFDM symbols. For each partition, the OFDM symbols in that partition may have a corresponding cyclic prefix size and a corresponding FFT size, allowing different partitions to be targeted for different collections of user devices, e.g., user devices having different expected values of maximum delay spread and/or different ranges of mobility. The base station may also dynamically re-configure the sample rate of each frame, allowing further resolution in control of subcarrier spacing. By allowing the cyclic prefixes of different OFDM symbols to have different lengths, it is feasible to construct a frame that confirms to a set payload duration and has arbitrary values of cyclic prefix size per partition and FFT size per partition. The partitions may be multiplexed in time and/or frequency.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2019
    Publication date: August 29, 2019
    Applicant: One Media, LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. Simon, Kevin A. Shelby, Mark Earnshaw
  • Publication number: 20190268777
    Abstract: Wireless system architectures worldwide are undergoing a paradigm shift today. This, by adopting new technology and wireless system architectures based on Software Defined Network (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) that are being instantiated using IT cloud computing methods. The 3 GPP is defining a new 5G radio and 5G core network in release 16 based on a cloud native system architecture. Herein, a new next generation multi-channel-tenant virtualized broadcast platform using SDN/NFV is disclosed using ATSC 3.0 standards A/321, A/322 as a baseline.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 26, 2019
    Publication date: August 29, 2019
    Applicant: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael J. SIMON, Mark A. AITKEN, Ebenezer K. KOFI
  • Patent number: 10389569
    Abstract: Techniques relating to generating and receiving radio frames with multiple partitions are disclosed. A mobile device may include a wireless radio, one or more antennas, and one or more processors. In some embodiments, the mobile device is configured to receive a frame of wireless data that includes a plurality of partitions and partition data. In some embodiments, at least one of the partitions encodes local content and at least one of the partitions encodes regional content. In some embodiments, partition data indicates which partitions encode which type of content. In some embodiments, the mobile device is configured to select, based on the partition data, one or more of the plurality of partitions and decode the selected one or more partitions to determine data represented by the OFDM symbols in the selected one or more partitions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2019
    Inventors: Michael J. Simon, Kevin A. Shelby, Mark Earnshaw
  • Patent number: 10334550
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for signal detection in dynamic channels with high carrier frequency offset are provided. A coherent detector and a non-coherent detector are operated in parallel on a block of samples of an input signal to determine respective time offset candidates of the input signal. The time offset candidate obtained from the non-coherent detector is used to determine a frequency offset candidate of the input signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2019
    Assignee: One Media, LLC
    Inventors: Zahir Jaffer Raza, Michael J. Simon, Kevin A. Shelby, Sandeep Mavuduru Kannappa
  • Publication number: 20190116079
    Abstract: An extensible communication system is described herein. The system includes a first module for receiving a root index value and for generating a constant amplitude zero auto-correlation sequence based on the root value. The system further includes a second module for receiving a seed value and for generating a Pseudo-Noise sequence based on the seed value. The system further includes a third module for modulating the constant amplitude zero auto-correlation sequence by the Pseudo-Noise sequence and for generating a complex sequence. The system further includes a fourth module for translating the complex sequence to a time domain sequence, wherein the fourth module applies a cyclic shift to the time domain sequence to obtain a shifted time domain sequence.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 13, 2018
    Publication date: April 18, 2019
    Applicant: One Media, LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. SIMON, Kevin A. Shelby, Mark Earnshaw, Sandeep Mavuduru Kannappa
  • Publication number: 20190075336
    Abstract: An example method of mapping a plurality of modulation symbols of a plurality of physical layer pipes present in a frame to a resource grid of data cells for the frame is described. The modulation symbols of the plurality of physical layer pipes are represented by a two-dimensional array comprising the modulation symbol values for the plurality of physical layer pipes and the resource grid of data cells is represented by a one-dimensional sequentially indexed array.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 4, 2018
    Publication date: March 7, 2019
    Applicant: ONE MEDIA, LLC
    Inventors: Mark Earnshaw, Michael J. Simon, Kevin A. Shelby