Systems and methods for wireless communications via satellite

• US 20050201318A1
• Filed: 04/29/2004
• Published: 09/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AeroMobile Ltd. (Government of Norway)
• Original Assignee: ARINC Incorporated (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Inventors: Little, John R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,558,250 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/321
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18508 with satellite system used as relay, i.e. aeronautical mobile satellite service

Abstract

A method for communicating between an airborne mobile terminal and a terrestrial location via satellite, wherein the satellite communication channel is provided by an integrated services digital network (ISDN) connection for the voice data, and mobile packet data system (MPDS) connection for the signaling data. The ISDN connection is automatically disabled when no voice data is being transmitted, and multiple voice calls are multiplexed on a single ISDN channel.

Claims

1. An apparatus for transmitting a voice call via satellite from a mobile station to a destination station, comprising:

a first data channel; and

a second data channel, wherein the voice call is divided into voice data and signaling data, the voice data being transmitted to and from the satellite using the first data channel, and the signaling data being transmitted to and from the satellite using the second data channel.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a unit which charges for usage of the first data channel according to the duration of connect time.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a unit which charges for usage of the second data channel according to the amount of transmitted data.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first data channel comprises an integrated services digital network (ISDN) connection.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second data channel comprises a mobile packet data system (MPDS) connection.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first data channel is automatically disconnected at the termination of the voice call.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the voice data is recombined with the signaling data upon reception of transmitted data from the satellite.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first data channel comprises a time division multiplexing channel.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the voice data is transmitted in at least one time slot of the time division multiplexing channel.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein at least one remaining time slot of the time division multiplexing channel is used to transmit at least one additional voice call.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein at least one remaining time slot of the time division multiplexing channel is used to transmit signaling data associated with at least one of the voice calls.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein at least one remaining time slot of the time division multiplexing channel is used to transmit data not related to the voice call.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a mobile terminal adapter that separates the voice data and signaling data; and

a ground terminal adapter that recombines the voice data and the signaling data before transmitting the recombined signal along a terrestrial mobile network.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a first voice processing unit, that inserts additional bits into the voice data when transmitting the voice data from the mobile station to the satellite.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the voice processing unit inserts a sufficient number of bits into the voice data to increase the data transmission rate of the voice data to 8 kbps.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the voice processing unit inserts sufficient number of bits in the voice data to increase the data transmission rate of the voice data to 16 kbps.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a second voice processing unit that removes bits from the voice data when transmitting the voice data from the satellite to the destination station.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a voice multiplexer which assembles the voice data into time slots in a frame of data to be transmitted over the first data channel.

19. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a voice demultiplexer which extracts the voice data arriving in time slots in a frame of data over the first data channel into a stream of data.

20. A method for transmitting data from a mobile terminal to a satellite, comprising:

stripping voice data from headers in the data being transmitted from the mobile terminal; and

transmitting the stripped voice data in a time slot of a frame of a first digital channel to the satellite.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

separating the data from the mobile terminal into voice data and signaling data;

transmitting the voice data across a first digital channel; and

transmitting the signaling data across a second digital channel.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the first digital channel comprises an integrated services digital network channel and the second digital channel comprises a mobile packet data services channel.

23. A method for communicating between a satellite and a terminal on a terrestrial network, comprising:

receiving voice data and signaling data transmitted from the satellite;

combining the voice data with signaling data;

formatting the combined voice and signaling data according to protocols of the terrestrial network; and

transmitting the combined voice and signaling data over the terrestrial network to the terminal.

24. A method for transmitting data from a mobile terminal to a terminal on a terrestrial network via satellite, comprising:

separating voice data from signaling data transmitted by the mobile terminal;

stripping the voice data from headers being transmitted from the mobile terminal;

transmitting the stripped voice data in a time slot of a frame of a digital communication channel to the satellite;

transmitting signaling data in another time slot of a frame of a digital communication channel to the satellite;

receiving the transmitted voice data and signaling data;

combining the voice data and signaling data into a data stream;

formatting the data stream according to protocols of the terrestrial network; and

transmitting the formatted data stream to the terminal on the terrestrial network.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising transmitting a second voice call via another time slot of a frame of a digital communication channel.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the digital communication channel comprises a time division multiplexing channel.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the digital communication channel comprises an integrated services digital network channel.