Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for dynamically controlling hand-off thresholds in a satellite cellular communication system

US6108538A · kind A · utility

41Cited by
9References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 1, 1997
Grant dateAug 22, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 1, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04W84/06
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

In cellular communication systems, hand-offs are performed to maintain links as subscriber units (110) and beams move relative to each other. The hand-off determination procedure (500) is performed in overlap regions (240, 340). Candidate beams are identified and hand-off types are determined based on the satellite (120) associated with the candidate beam. Thresholds are established and changed to optimize a hand-off request determination procedure (500). Two hand-off types are considered. An inter-satellite hand-off is requested (514) when the current beam and the candidate beam are on different satellites (120). An intra-satellite hand-off is requested (510) when the current beam and the candidate beam are on the same satellite (120). Thresholds are dynamically changed and algorithms are used to minimize the number of inter-satellite hand-offs.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.