Data communication satellite system and method of carrying multi-media traffic
First Claim
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1. In a satellite communication system carrying data traffic between a data communication satellite and plurality of ground terminals, a method of allocating bandwidth resources amongst a number of spot beams used by said data communication satellite to establish uplink and downlink communication carriers with said ground terminals, comprising the step:
- assigning a predetermined frequency reuse pattern to a number of spot beams forming a geometric configuration of beam groups covering said plurality of ground terminals;
distributing the available bandwidth between each beam group such that a downlink carrier of predetermined bandwidth is shared between spot beams forming said beam group; and
allocating a predetermined amount of transmission time on said downlink carrier to each spot beam, according the traffic density and bandwidth requirements of each spot beam.
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Abstract
A satellite data communication system and method of operating the same is disclosed. The satellite data communication system provides switched transport services for multi-media networks, wherein access schemes, protocols and switching techniques are combined to offer optimized dynamic bandwidth-on-demand on a cell-by-cell basis.
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Citations
43 Claims
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1. In a satellite communication system carrying data traffic between a data communication satellite and plurality of ground terminals, a method of allocating bandwidth resources amongst a number of spot beams used by said data communication satellite to establish uplink and downlink communication carriers with said ground terminals, comprising the step:
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assigning a predetermined frequency reuse pattern to a number of spot beams forming a geometric configuration of beam groups covering said plurality of ground terminals;
distributing the available bandwidth between each beam group such that a downlink carrier of predetermined bandwidth is shared between spot beams forming said beam group; and
allocating a predetermined amount of transmission time on said downlink carrier to each spot beam, according the traffic density and bandwidth requirements of each spot beam. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 25, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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14. An improved satellite communication system for carrying data traffic between a data communication satellite and a plurality of ground terminals, each ground terminal being operable in a spot beam for communicating with said data communication satellite over uplink and downlink carriers, wherein the improvement comprises:
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each ground terminal being operable to communicate with said data communication satellite via an uplink MF-TDMA carrier having a signal bandwidth which is distributed pseudo-statically in an integral number of carriers with a minimum capacity of one carrier in each spot beam; and
each ground terminal being operable to communicate with said data communication satellite via a downlink TDM cell burst which vary dynamically in length from frame to frame according to the traffic requirements of each spot beam. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. In a satellite communication system for carrying data traffic between a source terminal and a destination terminal via a data communication satellite having an on-board switching system, a method of routing data cells through said on-board switching system, comprising:
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receiving, at said on-board switching system, a data packet from said source terminal, a data cell within said packet having an information field and traffic routing fields, said traffic routing fields comprising at least a downlink address designating one of a plurality of downlink carriers, and a Virtual Circuit Identifier (VCI) identifying at least one physical address of one of said destination terminal;
transmitting said received data packet to an appropriate downlink carrier specified by said downlink address without translation at said switching system;
receiving at said destination terminal, said data cells; and
identifying if said data cells are applicable to said destination terminal using said VCI from said traffic routing fields, wherein said VCI comprises one of a single cast VCI directed to a specific terminal, a multi-cast VCI directed to more than one terminal, or a broadcast VCI directed to all terminals. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 26, 27)
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28. In a satellite communication system for carrying data traffic between a source terminal and a destination terminal via a data communication satellite having an on-board switching system, a method of scheduling cell priority of data cells carried on a downlink carrier established between said data communication satellite and said destination terminal, comprising:
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receiving, at said on-board switching system, a data cell from said source terminal, said data cell having a cell type field indicative of cell priority to be allocated to the received data cell, said cell priority corresponding to one of a plurality of cell priority categories used in said on-board switching system;
placing said data cell on an appropriate cell priority queue according to said cell priority to be used in said on-board switching system, wherein said placing is translation-free; and
transmitting said received data cell from said appropriate cell priority queue via an appropriate downlink carrier to a destination terminal according to the cell priority identified with said data cell and used by said on-board switching system. - View Dependent Claims (29, 37, 38, 39)
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30. In a satellite communication system for carrying data traffic between a source terminal and a destination terminal via a data communication satellite having an on-board switching system, a method of scheduling uplink capacity on a plurality of uplink carrier groups, each comprising one or more carriers, with each uplink carrier group serving groups of at least one said source terminals, comprising:
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receiving, at said on-board switching system, a cell from said source terminal, said cell comprising an Uplink Capacity Request (RQST) indicative that said source terminal is requesting a defined amount of capacity on one of said uplink carrier groups serving said source terminal, whereby to carry Jitter Tolerant (JT) cells;
analyzing said Uplink Capacity Request at said on-board switching system and assigning an assigned capacity to said source terminal;
signaling said assigned capacity to said source terminal on a downlink of said communication system;
said source terminal transmitting on the uplink according to said assigned capacity. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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Specification