Systems and methods for wireless communications onboard aircraft

• US 20050215249A1
• Filed: 07/27/2004
• Published: 09/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: AeroMobile Ltd. (Government of Norway), Telenor Satellite Services, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ARINC Incorporated (Rtx Corporation), Telenor Satellite Services, Inc.
• Inventors: Roynestad, Egil, Roed, Ulf A., Tuggey, Peter, Little, John R.
• Application Number:
  US10/899,096
• Publication Number:
  US 20050215249A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/431
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/005 Moving wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/06 Airborne or Satellite Networks space-based or airborne stations H04B7/185

Abstract

A method for communicating between an airborne mobile terminal and a terrestrial location via satellite, whereby a number of encode/decode modules are eliminated from the communications path, thereby reducing the transmission delay and improving the quality of the transmitted voice data.

Claims

1. An apparatus for transmitting data via satellite from a mobile terminal generating data at an original data rate to a destination terminal, comprising:

a first rate adapter which adapts the original data rate to a second data transmission rate; and

a second rate adapter which recovers the original data rate from the second data rate.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data is voice data generated by the mobile terminal.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first rate adapter adapts the original data rate to a second data rate by adding padding characters to a data sequence in the original data rate.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the padding characters are added to an end of the data sequence in the original data rate.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the second rate adapter recovers the original data rate by removing the added padding characters from the data sequence in the second data rate.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a satellite data unit that receives the voice data at the second date rate and transmits the voice data to a high gain antenna unit.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the high gain antenna unit receives the voice data at the second data rate from the satellite data unit and encodes the voice data on a radio frequency carrier wave for transmission to an orbiting satellite.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising:

a ground earth station that receives the voice data at the second data rate from a satellite and adapts the second data rate back to the original data rate using the second rate adapter.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

a mobile switching center including a transcoding rate adapter unit that transcodes the voice data received from the ground-earth station from the original data rate into a μ

law format for transmission over a public switched telephone network.

10. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising:

a secure telephone module that disables an encoding/decoding device in the satellite data unit.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

a secure telephone module that enables the second rate adapter in the ground earth station.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second data rate is a satellite communications data rate for transmitting data to and from an orbiting satellite.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the original data rate is a half rate format GSM standard communications data rate.

14. A method for communicating from a mobile terminal to another mobile terminal via satellite, comprising:

encoding digital data at an original data rate;

rate adapting the original data rate to a second data rate;

transmitting digital voice data at the second data rate to a satellite reception station via satellite; and

rate adapting the second data rate back to the original data rate.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the digital data is digitized voice data.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

rate adapting the original data rate to the second data rate by at least one of adding and removing padding characters.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

rate adapting the second data rate back into the original data rate by at least one of removing and adding padding characters.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

transcoding the original data rate into a μ

law format; and

transmitting the transcoded data over a public switched telephone network.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

transmitting the transcoded data over a terrestrial cell phone network.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

setting a satellite data unit to a secure telephone mode such that an encode/decode device in the satellite data unit is disabled.

21. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

encoding the digital voice data at the second data rate onto an RF signal;

amplifying the RF signal; and

transmitting the RF signal to the satellite.

22. The method of claim 14, wherein the original data rate is a half rate GSM data rate, and the second data rate is a satellite communications data rate.

23. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

setting the satellite reception station to a secure telephone mode such that a second rate adapting device in the satellite reception station is enabled.

24. A computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code performing the method of claim 14.