Satellite-based narrow-band communication

• US 10,700,769 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2018
• Issued: 06/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Wang, Jibing, Stauffer, Erik Richard, Akram, Aamir
• Primary Examiner(s): Magloire, Elisabeth Benoit
• Application Number:
  US16/142,952
• Publication Number:
  US 20190190591A1
• Time in Patent Office: 643 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18513 Transmission in a satellite or space-based system
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/15 Setup of multiple wireless link connections

Abstract

The present disclosure describes methods and apparatuses for satellite-based narrow-band communication. In some aspects, the systems include a user device (102) that establishes a Narrow-Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) wireless connection (106) with one or more orbital satellites (104) in order to transmit (108) and receive (110) data when other wireless connections are not available. The data may be relayed by the orbital satellite (104) to and from a base station (202) on Earth.

Claims

1. A method of low-bandwidth high-range communication performed by a user device, the method comprising:

determining, by the user device, that a quality of a first wireless connection with a base station using a first radio access technology (RAT) is below a quality threshold;

responsive to determining that the first wireless connection is below the quality threshold, establishing, via a transceiver of the user device, a second wireless connection with a satellite using a second RAT comprising a narrow-band Internet-of-Things (NB-IoT) RAT;

allocating a quantity of resource elements or subcarriers to the second wireless connection, the quantity of resource elements or subcarriers based on a distance between the user device and the satellite or a distance between Earth and the satellite; and

communicating, via the transceiver of the user device, data between the satellite and the user device using the second wireless connection, the communicating comprising;

transmitting, via a transmitter of the transceiver of the user device, the data over the second wireless connection using the NB-IoT RAT;

or

receiving, via a receiver of the transceiver of the user device, the data over the second wireless connection using the NB-IoT RAT.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the determination that the quality of the first wireless connection is below the quality threshold comprises receiving an indication of a null-quality first wireless connection.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising, prior to determining that the first wireless connection is below the quality threshold, communicating, via the transceiver of the user device, with the base station using the first RAT.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the communicating further comprises:

receiving delay data indicating an amount of delay for transmission by the user device over the second wireless connection.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the communicating further comprises:

receiving an uplink grant or a hybrid automatic repeat request.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the data comprises an emergency broadcast message.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first wireless connection and the second wireless connection are co-banded.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the first wireless connection and the second wireless connection operate in an L-band, an S-band, or a C-band.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the quantity of resources or subcarriers comprise less than a quantity of resources or subcarriers of one resource block.

10. A user device comprising:

a processor;

a transceiver configured to communicate using a plurality of radio access technologies (RATs); and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, responsive to execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

determining that a quality of a first wireless connection with a base station using a first RAT is below a quality threshold;

responsive to determining that the first wireless connection is below the quality threshold, establishing, via the transceiver, a second wireless connection with a satellite using a second RAT comprising a narrow-band Internet-of-Things (NB-IoT) RAT;

allocating a quantity of resource elements or subcarriers to the second wireless connection, the quantity of resource elements or subcarriers based on a distance between the user device and the satellite or a distance between Earth and the satellite; and

communicating, via the transceiver, data between the satellite and the user device via the second wireless connection using the NB RAT IoT RAT.

11. The user device as recited in claim 10, wherein the satellite is in low Earth orbit.

12. The user device as recited in claim 10, wherein the transceiver is configurable to communicate other data via the first RAT.

13. The user device as recited in claim 10, wherein the first RAT comprises a 4^th generation long term evolution (4G LTE) RAT, a 4G LTE advanced RAT, or a 5th generation new radio (5G NR) RAT.

14. The user device as recited in claim 10, wherein the data comprises an emergency broadcast message.

15. A method performed by a satellite, the method comprising:

establishing, via a transceiver of the satellite, a narrow-band Internet-of-Things (NB-IoT) radio access technology (RAT) wireless connection with a user device;

allocating a quantity of resource elements or subcarriers to the NB-IoT RAT, the quantity of resource elements or subcarriers based on a distance between the user device and the satellite or a distance between Earth and the satellite; and

communicating, via the transceiver of the satellite, data with the user device using the NB-IoT RAT, the communicating comprising;

transmitting, via a transmitter of the transceiver, the data using the NB-IoT RAT, the transmission combining with beams from other satellites to create a formed beam;

or

receiving, via a receiver of the transceiver, the data using the NB-IoT RAT.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the data comprises an emergency broadcast message.

17. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the satellite includes a repeater for transmitting or receiving the data to or from the base station.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the data is received from the base station, via the repeater, prior to transmitting the data to the user device;

and

wherein the data is transmitted to the base station, via the repeater, after receiving the data from the user device.

19. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the repeater utilizes another RAT that is different from the NB-IoT RAT.

20. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the other RAT uses a frequency that is higher than that of the NB-IoT RAT.