Satellite system having terminals in hopping beams communicating with more than one gateway
First Claim
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1. A satellite communication system, comprising:
- a satellite configured to provide a first plurality of spot beams adapted for communication with subscriber terminals using time domain beam hopping, the satellite configured to provide a second plurality of spot beams adapted for communication with gateways, the time domain beam hopping including breaking up a set of consecutive messages received from a gateway into plural subsets of the messages, a first of the subsets being transmitted by way of one of the first plurality of the spot beams and a second of the subsets being transmitted by way of another of the first plurality of the spot beams, the satellite includes a spectrum routing network that is configured to time multiplex communications of spot beams of the second plurality of spot beams into spot beams of the first plurality of spot beams.
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Abstract
A satellite communication system includes a satellite configured to provide a first plurality of spot beams adapted for communication with subscriber terminals using time domain beam hopping and a second plurality of spot beams adapted for communication with gateways. The satellite includes a spectrum routing network that is configured to time multiplex spot beams of the second plurality of spot beams with spot beams of the first plurality of spot beams so that a spot beam that is implementing beam hopping for communication to subscriber terminals communicates with different feeder beams (and, therefore, different gateways) at different times during a hopping period.
35 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A satellite communication system, comprising:
a satellite configured to provide a first plurality of spot beams adapted for communication with subscriber terminals using time domain beam hopping, the satellite configured to provide a second plurality of spot beams adapted for communication with gateways, the time domain beam hopping including breaking up a set of consecutive messages received from a gateway into plural subsets of the messages, a first of the subsets being transmitted by way of one of the first plurality of the spot beams and a second of the subsets being transmitted by way of another of the first plurality of the spot beams, the satellite includes a spectrum routing network that is configured to time multiplex communications of spot beams of the second plurality of spot beams into spot beams of the first plurality of spot beams. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of operating a satellite communication system, comprising:
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providing a first plurality of spot beams from a non-geostationary satellite in order to communicate with subscriber terminals as the satellite moves relative to and over a planet surface; providing a second plurality of spot beams from the non-geostationary satellite in order to communicate with gateways as the satellite moves relative to and over the planet surface; communicating with the subscriber terminals by use of time domain beam hopping in which a set of consecutive messages received from one of the gateways is broken up into plural subsets of the messages, a first of the subsets being transmitted by way of one of the first plurality of the spot beams and a second of the subsets being transmitted by way of another of the first plurality of the spot beams; providing signal communication between a particular spot beam of the first plurality of spot beams and a first spot beam of the second plurality of spot beams during a first set of epochs while the particular spot beam is over a location on the planet surface; and providing signal communication between the particular spot beam and a second spot beam of the second plurality of spot beams during a second set of one or more epochs while the particular spot beam covers the location on the planet surface. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A satellite communication system, comprising:
a non-geostationary satellite configured to provide a first plurality of beams adapted for communication with subscriber terminals and a second plurality of beams adapted for communication with gateways, the satellite is configured to perform time domain beam hopping for communications of the first plurality of beams over a hopping period of a specified time domain beam hopping plan, the time domain beam hopping including breaking up a set of consecutive messages received from one of the gateways into plural subsets of the messages, a first of the subsets being transmitted by way of one of the first plurality of the spot beams and a second of the subsets being transmitted by way of another of the first plurality of the spot beams, the specified time domain beam hopping plan being such that a particular beam of the first plurality of beams receives communication bandwidth at multiple epochs during the hopping period, the satellite is configured to further route communications through different beams of the second plurality of beams as part of communicating by way of the particular beam at different epochs of multiple epochs during the hopping period. - View Dependent Claims (20)
Specification