Patent · US Expired

Earth tiling system for providing regional based service in a mobile satellite communication network

US6389289B1 · kind B1 · utility

115Cited by
4References
1Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 12, 1999
Grant dateMay 14, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 12, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04B7/18547
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus for determining the proper satellite communications service to be provided to a subscriber unit that may be integrated with the geographically defined service areas used in terrestrial cellular communications systems. The pre-existing geographically defined service areas are subdivided into quadrilateral tiles wherein each tile corresponds to a single service area. In addition, the tiles are mapped to a grid having a plurality of regularly spaced grid locations. A lookup table is created that references each grid location to the tiles that overlap the grid locations. The position of the subscriber unit and an approximated region of error within which the subscriber unit is likely to be located are used as input. The approximated region of error is mapped to the grid to identify the grid locations that align with the approximated region of error. Thereafter, the lookup table is accessed to identify the tiles associated with the aligning grid locations and the identified tiles are then used to identify the service area in which the subscriber unit is located so that the proper communications service may be provided. If necessary, geometrical point in polygon in…

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