Systems and methods for reducing power consumption in a satellite communication device

• US 10,181,896 B1
• Filed: 11/01/2017
• Issued: 01/15/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Swift, Simon Richard, Rice, Mark, Spear, Philip
• Primary Examiner(s): Dean, Raymond
• Application Number:
  US15/800,333
• Time in Patent Office: 440 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18519 Operations control, administration or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0203 in the radio access network or backbone network of wireless communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

The present disclosure is generally directed to systems and methods for utilizing an operating schedule to place a satellite communication device in a sleep state for reducing power consumption in the satellite communication device during periods of time when no satellite is available to communicate with the satellite communication device. The operating schedule, which can be a wake-up schedule and/or a sleep schedule, is dynamically updated by a scheduling server that receives two-line element (TLE) data from a TLE server on a recurring basis and uses the TLE data to determine timing information pertaining to line-of-sight visibility of one or more satellites to the satellite communication device. A push routine is then used by the scheduling server to periodically push the timing information to the satellite communication device for dynamically updating the operating schedule of the satellite communication device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving in a satellite communication device, at least one of a wake-up schedule or a sleep schedule, the at least one of the wake-up schedule or the sleep schedule derived from satellite orbital data comprising a two-line element (TLE) set;

storing the at least one of the wake-up schedule or the sleep schedule in a data storage element of the satellite communication device; and

utilizing the at least one of the wake-up schedule or the sleep schedule to place one or more components of the satellite communication device in a sleep state to reduce power consumption in the satellite communication device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the wake-up schedule or the sleep schedule is defined on the basis of at least one of extending a battery life of one or more batteries in the satellite communication device or extending a storage period of an electric charge in an electric charge storing element contained in the satellite communication device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the wake-up schedule or the sleep schedule is received in the satellite communication device from a scheduling server that is configured to periodically fetch the satellite orbital data from a dynamically-updated TLE database in a TLE server.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the scheduling server is further configured to use a push schedule to transmit the satellite orbital data to the satellite communication device via a communications satellite.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the push schedule is a periodically recurring schedule.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the periodically recurring schedule is based at least in part on a frequency of change in the dynamically-updated TLE database.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the scheduling server is further configured to execute the push schedule conditional to detecting a change in a current version of the satellite orbital data in comparison to a previous version of the satellite orbital data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the satellite orbital data comprises data indicative of at least one of a first duration of time when an antenna of the satellite communication device has a line-of-sight visibility with at least one satellite or a second duration of time when the antenna of the satellite communication device loses the line-of-sight visibility with respect to the at least one satellite.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising utilizing the at least one of the wake-up schedule or the sleep schedule to place the one or more components of the satellite communication device in a wake state, the wake state characterized at least in part by an establishment of communication between the satellite communication device and at least one satellite during a first period of time when the satellite communication device has a line-of-sight visibility with respect to the at least one satellite.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the wake state is characterized by a first duration that is defined by using one of a number of seconds or a first number of minutes, and the sleep state is characterized by a second duration that is defined by using one of a second number of minutes or a number of hours.

11. A method comprising:

communicatively coupling a scheduling server to a satellite communication device via a communication network;

defining a push schedule in the scheduling server;

obtaining in the scheduling server, from a two-line element (TLE) server, TLE data that provides orbital information of at least one satellite;

using the TLE data to identify one or more time periods when an antenna of the satellite communication device has a line-of-sight visibility with respect to at least one satellite;

defining a wake-up schedule for the satellite communication device based on at least one of the one or more time periods; and

using the push schedule to transfer the wake-up schedule from the scheduling server to the satellite communication device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein defining the push schedule in the scheduling server comprises a human operator using at least one of a webpage, a configuration file or a database.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

defining a sleep schedule for the satellite communication device based on the at least one of the one or more time periods; and

transmitting the sleep schedule from the scheduling server to the satellite communication device.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein obtaining the TLE data in the scheduling server is carried out periodically by using at least one of a daily fetch schedule, a twice-daily fetch schedule, or an hourly fetch schedule.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the push schedule is a periodically recurring schedule that is determined at least in part on the at least one of the daily fetch schedule, the twice-daily fetch schedule, or the hourly fetch schedule used for obtaining the TLE data in the scheduling server.

16. A satellite communication device comprising:

a receiver configured to receive at least one of a wake-up schedule or a sleep schedule that is derived from satellite orbital data comprising a two-line element (TLE) set;

a data storage element configured to store the at least one of the wake-up schedule or the sleep schedule; and

a power management system configured to utilize the at least one of the wake-up schedule or the sleep schedule to place one or more components of the satellite communication device in a sleep state to reduce power consumption in the satellite communication device.

17. The satellite communication device of claim 16, wherein the receiver is configured to receive the at least one of the wake-up schedule or the sleep schedule from a scheduling server that is configured to periodically obtain the satellite orbital data from a dynamically-updated TLE server and to use a push schedule to transmit the at least one of the wake-up schedule or the sleep schedule to the receiver.

18. The satellite communication device of claim 17, wherein the receiver is configured to receive the at least one of the wake-up schedule or the sleep schedule based on the push schedule of the scheduling server.

19. The satellite communication device of claim 18, wherein the push schedule is a periodically recurring schedule.

20. The satellite communication device of claim 19, wherein the periodically recurring schedule is based at least in part on a frequency of change in the dynamically-updated TLE server.