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SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING MULTIPLE TRANSMISSION RESOURCES OF A SPATIAL MULTI-CELL RADIO-COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

  • US 20130034050A1
  • Filed: 08/03/2012
  • Published: 02/07/2013
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2011
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A satellite cellular radio-communication system comprising:

  • a transparent communication satellite serving as a relay, the transparent communication satellite in a geostationary orbit or a highly inclined elliptical orbit;

    at least one satellite access station configured to transmit and receive service and signal messages to and from the satellite on a first bidirectional wireless way;

    a set of user terminals configured to receive and transmit the service and signal messages from and to the satellite on a second bidirectional wireless way, the second bidirectional wireless way being made up of a second outbound downlink and a second inbound uplink; and

    at least one control unit of a virtual cell, the at least one control unit being connected to one or more satellite access stations;

    the communication satellite being configured to transmit on the second outbound downlink and to receive on the second inbound uplink the service and signal messages received and transmitted by the set of terminals, the service and signal messages being divided into a set of radio-communication satellite beams,each satellite beam F(i) being identified by a first beam identification integer index i,each satellite beam F(i) defining, by its wireless range on the ground, a satellite coverage of a satellite cell, and being associated with a frequency band taken among a predetermined number Nb of different frequency bands B(k), each frequency band B(k) being identified by a second band identification integer index k, with k varying from 1 to Nb,each frequency band B(k) being subdivided into one or more frequency sub-bands SB(k, j), each sub-band being identified by a pair of indices (k, j), in which k is the index of the band and j is an integer comprised between 1, and an integer Nsb(j) depending on k,the set of satellite beams being configured such that a band B(g(i)) allocated according to a distribution function g to any beam i is different from the bands associated with all of the beams adjacent to said any beam F(i), andeach satellite access station being associated with a different compact cluster of at least two satellite beams, no cluster taken among any two clusters having a shared beam,a frequency and spatial transmission resource being a sub-band of index j of a band of index k assigned to a beam of index i and is associated with a triplet,each virtual cell being a set of frequency and spatial transmission resources such that a set of beams of each virtual form a compact set of beams,each terminal being associated with one virtual cell and being configured to receive, from the control unit of the associated virtual cell, and run a configuration command for a transmission channel to transmit and receive messages therein, the channel using at least two frequency and spatial resources at the same time having different band indices,each control unit being configured to manage the frequency and spatial resources of the associated virtual cell associated therewith, and to make the messages received and transmitted by the terminals affected to the virtual cell of the control unit pass through.

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