Integrated or autonomous system and method of satellite-terrestrial frequency reuse using signal attenuation and/or blockage, dynamic assignment of frequencies and/or hysteresis
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A cellular communications system, comprising:
- a space based system comprising at least one satellite, each satellite comprising at least one antenna and establishing a first set of cells and transmitting and receiving Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) based waveforms using at least a first portion of at least one predetermined frequency band used by the first set of cells;
a ground based system comprising at least one base transceiver station (BTS), each BTS establishing a second set of cells and transmitting and receiving GSM based waveforms utilizing at least a second portion of the one predetermined frequency band, said space based and ground based systems functioning substantially autonomously and at least one of using and reusing at least a portion of spectrum from the same at least one predetermined frequency band to be used as at least one of an uplink and downlink frequency channel from any of the frequencies within the at least one predetermined frequency band;
at least one subscriber terminal communicating with at least one of said space based system and with said ground based system when located in at least one of the first and second set of cells; and
at least one radio resource manager (RRM) determining available communication links between said at least one subscriber terminal and at least one of said space based system and said ground based system.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A cellular communications system comprising a space based system comprising a first set of cells, and a ground based system comprising a second set of cells. The space and ground systems can optionally function substantially autonomously, with each using spectrum from at least one predetermined frequency band.
114 Citations
111 Claims
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1. A cellular communications system, comprising:
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a space based system comprising at least one satellite, each satellite comprising at least one antenna and establishing a first set of cells and transmitting and receiving Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) based waveforms using at least a first portion of at least one predetermined frequency band used by the first set of cells;
a ground based system comprising at least one base transceiver station (BTS), each BTS establishing a second set of cells and transmitting and receiving GSM based waveforms utilizing at least a second portion of the one predetermined frequency band, said space based and ground based systems functioning substantially autonomously and at least one of using and reusing at least a portion of spectrum from the same at least one predetermined frequency band to be used as at least one of an uplink and downlink frequency channel from any of the frequencies within the at least one predetermined frequency band;
at least one subscriber terminal communicating with at least one of said space based system and with said ground based system when located in at least one of the first and second set of cells; and
at least one radio resource manager (RRM) determining available communication links between said at least one subscriber terminal and at least one of said space based system and said ground based system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80)
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45. A cellular communications system, comprising:
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a space based system comprising at least one satellite, each satellite comprising at least one antenna and establishing a first set of cells and transmitting and receiving Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) based waveforms using at least a first portion of at least one predetermined frequency band used by the first set of cells;
a ground based system comprising at least one base transceiver station (BTS), each BTS establishing a second set of cells and transmitting and receiving code division multiple access (CDMA) waveforms utilizing at least a second portion of the same at least one predetermined frequency band, said space based and ground based systems functioning substantially autonomously and said space based system at least one of using and reusing at least a portion of spectrum from the same at least one predetermined frequency band to be used as at least one of an uplink and downlink frequency channel from any of the frequencies within the at least one predetermined frequency band;
at least one subscriber terminal communicating with at least one of said space based system and with said ground based system when located in at least one of the first and second set of cells; and
at least one radio resource manager (RRM) determining available communication links between said at least one subscriber terminal and at least one of said space based system and said ground based system.
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81. A method of assigning to a requesting subscriber unit a communication channel commonly shared between a space based communication system and a ground based communication system, comprising the steps of:
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configuring a first satellite spot beam, associated with the space based system, having a plurality of communication channels associated therewith;
configuring at least one terrestrial cell, associated with the ground based system, that at least partially geographically overlaps the first satellite spot beam;
requesting by a dual mode subscriber terminal a communication channel;
at least one of the ground based system and the space based system substantially autonomously determining channel availability; and
assigning to the requesting dual mode subscriber unit at least one of an unused channel and, for reuse with the dual mode subscriber terminal, a used channel having a sufficiently weak signal strength. - View Dependent Claims (82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104)
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105. A method of making a telephone call using at least one of a space based system and a ground based system, comprising the steps of:
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dialing by a user using a subscriber terminal a telephone number within an area of a first terrestrial cell having at least partial overlapping geographic coverage with at least a satellite spot beam, the terrestrial cell and the spot beam sharing a common set of frequencies;
at least one of the ground based system and the space based system substantially autonomously determining channel availability in response to said dialing step; and
assigning a channel to the requesting subscriber terminal.
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106. In a cellular communications system comprising a space based system comprising a first set of cells, and a ground based system comprising a second set of cells, in which at least a portion of the second set of cells share a common geographic area and have at least a portion of overlapping geographic coverage with the first set of cells, the space based and ground based systems functioning substantially autonomously and each using one or more mutually exclusive predetermined frequency bands, a method for initiating a call between a subscriber terminal and at least one of the space based system and the ground based system, comprising the steps of:
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a subscriber terminal transmitting to the system a signal indicating whether it is a single or dual mode terminal;
determining by the system based on at least the transmitted signal whether the subscriber terminal is a single mode or a dual mode terminal; and
for a dual mode subscriber terminal, at least one of assigning to the ground based system for use with the dual mode subscriber terminal an unused space based system channel, using in the ground based system an unused ground based system channel, reusing in the ground based system a channel used by the space based system having a substantially weak signal relative to the dual mode subscriber terminal, and using in the space based system a channel assigned to the space based system; and
for a single mode subscriber terminal;
using in the space based system an available channel having an acceptable signal strength.
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107. In a cellular communications system comprising a space based system comprising a first set of cells, and a ground based system comprising a second set of cells, in which at least a portion of the second set of cells share a common geographic area and have at least a portion of overlapping geographic coverage with the first set of cells, the space based system and the ground based system share and commonly use at least a portion of a predetermined frequency band, and in which the space based and ground based systems function substantially autonomously, a method for initiating a call between a subscriber terminal and at least one of the space based system and the ground based system, comprising the steps of:
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a subscriber terminal transmitting to the system a signal indicating whether it is a single or dual mode terminal;
determining by the system based at least one the transmitted signal whether the subscriber terminal is a single mode or a dual mode terminal; and
for a dual mode subscriber terminal, at least one of using an unused channel to establish communication between the ground based system and the dual mode subscriber terminal, reusing in the ground based system a channel used by the space based system having a substantially weak signal relative to the subscriber terminal to establish communication between the ground based system and the dual mode subscriber terminal, and reusing in the ground based system a channel used by the ground based system having a substantially weak signal relative to the subscriber terminal to establish communication between the ground based system and the dual mode subscriber terminal; and
for a single mode subscriber terminal;
using in the space based system an available channel having an acceptable signal strength.
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108. In a cellular communications system comprising a space based system comprising a first set of cells, and a ground based system comprising a second set of cells, in which at least a portion of the second set of cells share a common geographic area and have at least a portion of overlapping geographic coverage with the first set of cells, and in which the space based and ground based systems function substantially autonomously and each use one or more mutually exclusive predetermined frequency bands, a method for executing a handoff from a first base station associated with the ground system to at least one of a second base station associated with the ground based system and a satellite, comprising the steps of:
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determining whether a received signal strength indication (RSSI) between the subscriber terminal and the second base station is satisfied;
a subscriber terminal transmitting to the system a signal indicating whether it is a single or dual mode terminal;
determining by the system based on at least the transmitted signal whether the subscriber terminal is a single mode or a dual mode terminal and;
for a dual mode subscriber terminal, when the second base station has an acceptable RSSI, at least one of reassigning to the second base station for communication with the dual mode subscriber terminal at least one of an unused space based system channel and an unused ground based system channel, and reusing by the second base station for communication with the dual mode subscriber terminal a channel used by the space based system having a substantially weak signal relative to the subscriber terminal; and
for a single mode subscriber terminal;
using by the subscriber terminal a channel associated with the space based system having an acceptable signal strength.
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109. In a cellular communications system comprising a space based system comprising a first set of cells, and a ground based system comprising a second set of cells, in which the space based system and the ground based system share and commonly use at least a portion of a predetermined frequency band, the space based and ground based systems functioning substantially autonomously, a method for executing a handoff from a first base station associated with the ground system to at least one of a second base station associated with the ground based system and a satellite, comprising the steps of:
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determining whether a received signal strength indication (RSSI) between the subscriber terminal and the second base station is satisfied;
a subscriber terminal transmitting to the system a signal indicating whether it is a single or dual mode terminal;
determining by the system based at least one the transmitted signal whether the subscriber terminal is a single mode or a dual mode terminal and;
for a dual mode subscriber terminal, when the second base station has an acceptable RSSI, at least one of reassigning to the second base station for communication with the dual mode subscriber terminal an unused system channel, and reusing by the second base station for communication with the dual mode subscriber terminal a channel used by the space based system having a substantially weak signal relative to the subscriber terminal; and
for a single mode subscriber terminal;
using by the subscriber terminal at least one of an unused channel and a used channel having a sufficiently weak signal strength relative to the subscriber terminal.
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110. In a cellular communications system comprising a space based system comprising a first set of cells, and a ground based system comprising a second set of cells, in which at least a portion of the second set of cells share a common geographic area and have at least a portion of overlapping geographic coverage with the first set of cells, the space based and ground based systems functioning substantially autonomously and each using one or more mutually exclusive predetermined frequency bands, a method for executing a handoff from a first satellite spot beam associated with the space based system to at least one of a second satellite spot beam associated with the space based system and a base station associated with the ground based system, comprising the steps of:
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determining whether a received signal strength indication (RSSI) between the subscriber terminal and the second satellite spot beam is satisfied;
transmitting by a subscriber terminal to the system a signal indicating whether the subscriber terminal is a single mode or a dual mode terminal;
determining by the system based on at least the transmitted signal whether the subscriber terminal is a single mode or a dual mode terminal and;
for a dual mode subscriber terminal, when the base station has an acceptable RSSI, at least one of assigning to the base station for communication with the dual mode subscriber terminal an unused space based system channel associated with the second spot beam, reusing by the base station for communication with the dual mode subscriber terminal a channel used by the second spot beam having a substantially weak signal strength relative to the dual mode subscriber terminal, reusing by the base station for communication with the dual mode subscriber terminal a channel used by the ground based system having a substantially weak signal strength relative to the dual mode subscriber terminal, and using by the base station for communication with the dual mode subscriber terminal an unused ground based system channel having sufficient signal strength; and
for a single mode subscriber terminal;
using by the single mode subscriber terminal a channel associated with a second spot beam of the space based system having a acceptable signal strength.
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111. In a cellular communications system comprising a space based system comprising a first set of cells, and a ground based system comprising a second set of cells, in which the space based system and the ground based system share and commonly use at least a portion of a predetermined frequency band, the space based and ground based systems functioning substantially autonomously and each using at least a portion of spectrum from at least a portion of one predetermined frequency band, a method for executing a handoff from a first satellite spot beam associated with the space based system to at least one of a second satellite spot beam associated with the space based system and a base station associated with the ground based system, comprising the steps of:
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determining whether a received signal strength indication (RSSI) between the subscriber terminal and the second base station is satisfied;
transmitting by a subscriber terminal to the system a signal indicating whether the subscriber terminal is a single or a dual mode terminal;
determining by the system based at least the transmitted signal whether the subscriber terminal is a single mode or a dual mode terminal; and
for a dual mode subscriber terminal, when the base station has an acceptable RSSI, at least one of reassigning to the base station for communication with the dual mode subscriber terminal an unused system channel, reusing by the base station for communication with the dual mode subscriber terminal a channel used by the space based system having a substantially weak signal relative to the dual mode subscriber terminal, reusing by the base station for communication with the dual mode subscriber terminal a channel used by the ground based system having a substantially weak signal relative to the dual mode subscriber terminal; and
for a single mode subscriber terminal;
using by the single mode subscriber terminal at least one of an unused channel associated with the second spot beam and a used channel having a sufficiently weak signal strength relative to the subscriber terminal.
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Specification