Satellite-to-satellite handoff in satellite communications system
US9681337B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 17, 2015 |
| Grant date | Jun 13, 2017 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 17, 2035 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04W84/06
- WIPO fieldTelecommunications
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Aspects of the disclosure provide a handoff procedure for a satellite communication system such as a broadband low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication system. A gateway and a user terminal (UT) coordinate and schedule a satellite-to-satellite handoff in such a way that there are no messaging round-trip delays between the last return service link (RSL) packet transmitted from the user terminal to the source satellite and the first RSL packet transmitted from the user terminal to the target satellite. Therefore, an outage on the return link (from the user terminal to the gateway) can be limited to the actual time for moving the antenna feed from the source satellite to the target satellite. Furthermore, an outage on the forward link (from the gateway to the user terminal) can be limited to a single round-trip delay in addition to the time for moving the antenna feed.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.