Integrated or autonomous system and method of satellite-terrestrial frequency reuse using signal attenuation and/or blockage, dynamic assignment of frequencies and/or hysteresis

• US 7,577,400 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2004
• Issued: 08/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: ATC Technology Corporation (FedEx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: ATC Technology Corporation (FedEx Corporation)
• Inventors: Singh, Rajendra, Karabinis, Peter D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Anderson; Matthew D
• Assistant Examiner(s): Safaipour; Bobbak
• Application Number:
  US10/965,303
• Publication Number:
  US 20050079816A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,769 Days
• Field of Search: 455/12.1
• US Class Current: 455/12.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18563 Arrangements for interconnecting multiple systems data switching networks H04L12/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2041 Spot beam multiple access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks

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.

Claims

1. A communications system, comprising:

a space based system comprising at least one satellite, each satellite transmitting and/or receiving waveforms using a first portion of a predetermined frequency band that is authorized for the provision of space based communications; and

a ground based system comprising at least one base station, each base station transmitting and/or receiving waveforms utilizing a second portion of the predetermined frequency band;

wherein the communications system is configured to preferentially provide communications to subscriber terminals via the ground based system; and

wherein the space based system is configured to provide communications to the subscriber terminals using a first radio resource manager that is not used by the ground based system, a first mobile switching center that is not used by the ground based system and a first network operations center that is not used by the ground based system, and the ground based system is configured to provide communications to the subscriber terminals using a second radio resource manager that is not used by the space based system, a second mobile switching center that is not used by the space based system and a second network operations center that is not used by the space based system.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein there is no frequency overlap between the first portion and the second portion.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the first portion overlaps in frequency, at least partially, with the second portion.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined frequency band comprises a space based system uplink portion, a space based system downlink portion, and a ground based system portion.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein first and second cells of the space based system use mutually exclusive portions of the first portion of the predetermined frequency band.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein a subscriber terminal is configured to preferentially communicate with the at least one base station.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the subscriber terminal comprises a first vocoder having a first data rate and a second vocoder having a second data rate.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein the first and/or second radio resource managers assign and/or activate the first vocoder and/or the second vocoder in response to predetermined criteria.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the predetermined criteria comprise at least one of capacity demand, voice quality, and received signal level.

10. The system according to claim 8, wherein the first and/or second radio resource managers further assign and/or activate a different vocoder to a voice communications circuit in response to the predetermined criteria.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the predetermined criteria comprises capacity demand, voice quality, signal strength, and/or received signal level having changed substantially since assignment or activation of the at least one of the first vocoder and the second vocoder.

12. The system according to claim 6, wherein the subscriber terminal communicates with the at least one base station by transmitting at frequencies that are authorized to provide uplink communications of the space based system, and/or receiving at frequencies that are authorized to provide downlink communications of the space based system.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein frequencies used by a cell of the space based system are mutually exclusive to frequencies used by the subscriber terminal.

14. The system according to claim 6, wherein the subscriber terminal communicates with the at least one base station by transmitting at frequencies that are authorized to provide downlink communications of the space based system, and/or receiving at frequencies that are authorized to provide uplink communications of the space based system.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein frequencies used by a cell of the space based system are mutually exclusive to frequencies used by the subscriber terminal.

16. The system according to claim 6, wherein the subscriber terminal communicates with the at least one base station by transmitting at frequencies that are authorized to provide uplink communications of the space based system, and/or receiving at frequencies that are authorized to provide uplink communications of the space based system.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein frequencies used by a cell of the space based system are mutually exclusive to frequencies used by the subscriber terminal.

18. The system according to claim 6, wherein the subscriber terminal communicates with the at least one base station by transmitting at frequencies that are authorized to provide downlink communications of the space based system, and/or receiving at frequencies that are authorized to provide downlink communications of the space based system.

19. The system according to claim 18, wherein frequencies used by a cell of the space based system are mutually exclusive to frequencies used by the subscriber terminal.

20. The system according to claim 1, wherein a satellite of the at least one satellite communicates with subscriber terminals using a first air interface and a base station of the at least one base station communicates with subscriber terminals using a second air interface.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein the first air interface comprises channels that are separated by frequency and/or time and the second air interface comprises channels that are separated by frequency and/or time.

22. The system according to claim 21, wherein the first and/or second air interface comprises a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) protocol.

23. The system according to claim 20, wherein the first air interface comprises channels that are separated by frequency and/or code and the second air interface comprises channels that are separated by frequency and/or code.

24. The system according to claim 23, wherein the first and/or second air interface comprises a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) protocol.

25. The system according to claim 20, wherein the first air interface comprises channels that are separated by frequency and/or time and the second air interface comprises channels that are separated by frequency and/or code.

26. The system according to claim 25, wherein the first air interface comprises a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) protocol and the second air interface comprises a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) protocol.

27. The system according to claim 6, wherein the subscriber terminal comprises at least one variable rate vocoder.

28. The system according to claim 20, wherein the first air interface comprises channels that are separated by frequency and/or code and the second air interface comprises channels that are separated by frequency and/or time.

29. The system according to claim 28, wherein the first air interface comprises a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) protocol and the second air interface comprises a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) protocol.

30. The system according to claim 8, wherein the first and/or second radio resource managers monitor inband interference, received signal quality and/or received signal strength and avoid using channels containing interference exceeding a predetermined threshold.

31. The system according to claim 6, wherein the subscriber terminal is configured to communicate with the space based system and with the ground based system.

32. The system according to claim 1, wherein the subscriber terminals are configured to communicate with the space based system and with the ground based system.

33. The system according to claim 30, wherein the first and/or second radio resource managers execute utilization of a different communications channel when a quality measure of an existing communications channel has fallen below a predetermined level.

34. The system according to claim 1, wherein the first and/or second network operations centers maintain cognizance of availability of respective satellite and terrestrial resources and administer reconfiguration, assignment and/or reuse of frequencies within the predetermined frequency band.

35. The system according to claim 34, wherein the first and/or second network operations centers utilize past system traffic patterns in the reconfiguration, assignment and/or use of frequencies.

36. The system according to claim 34, wherein the first and/or second network operations centers utilize at least one of hysteresis and negative hysteresis in the reconfiguration, assignment and/or use of frequencies.

37. The system according to claim 1, wherein the space based system is configured to communicate with subscriber terminals that are not capable of communicating with the ground based system and with subscriber terminals that are capable of communicating with the ground based system.

38. A method of providing communications, the method comprising:

communicating between a space based system and at least one subscriber terminal by transmitting and/or receiving waveforms using a first portion of a predetermined frequency band, wherein the space based system comprises at least one satellite and the predetermined frequency band is authorized for the provision of space based communications;

communicating between a ground based system and at least one subscriber terminal by transmitting and/or receiving waveforms utilizing a second portion of the predetermined frequency band, wherein the ground based system comprises at least one base station; and

providing communications to subscriber terminals preferentially over the ground based system;

the space based system providing communications to at least one subscriber terminal using a first radio resource manager that is not used by the ground based system, a first mobile switching center that is not used by the ground based system and a first network operations center that is not used by the ground based system, and the ground based system providing communications to at least one subscriber terminal using a second radio resource manager that is not used by the space based system, a second mobile switching center that is not used by the space based system and a second network operations center that is not used by the space based system.

39. The method according to claim 38, wherein there is no frequency overlap between the first portion and the second portion.

40. The method according to claim 38, wherein the first portion overlaps in frequency, at least partially, with the second portion.

41. The method according to claim 38, wherein the predetermined frequency band comprises a space based system uplink portion, a space based system downlink portion, and a ground based system portion.

42. The method according to claim 38, wherein first and second cells of the space based system use mutually exclusive portions of the first portion of the predetermined frequency band.

43. The method according to claim 38, wherein a subscriber terminal is configured to preferentially communicate with the at least one base station.

44. The method according to claim 43, wherein the subscriber terminal comprises a first vocoder having a first data rate and a second vocoder having a second data rate.

45. The method according to claim 44, further comprising assigning and/or activating of the first vocoder and/or the second vocoder in response to predetermined criteria by the first and/or second radio resource manager.

46. The method according to claim 45, wherein the predetermined criteria comprises at least one of capacity demand, voice quality, and received signal level.

47. The method according to claim 45, wherein the first and/or second radio resource managers further assign and/or activate a different vocoder to a voice communications circuit in response to the predetermined criteria.

48. The method according to claim 47, wherein the predetermined criteria comprises capacity demand, voice quality, signal strength, and/or received signal level having changed substantially since assignment or activation of the at least one of the first vocoder and the second vocoder.

49. The method according to claim 43, wherein the subscriber terminal communicates with the at least one base station by transmitting at frequencies that are authorized to provide uplink communications of the space based system, and/or receiving at frequencies that are authorized to provide downlink communications of the space based system.

50. The method according to claim 49, wherein frequencies used by a cell of the space based system are mutually exclusive to frequencies used by the subscriber terminal.

51. The method according to claim 43, wherein the subscriber terminal communicates with the at least one base station by transmitting at frequencies that are authorized to provide downlink communications of the space based system, and/or receiving at frequencies that are authorized to provide uplink communications of the space based system.

52. The method according to claim 51, wherein frequencies used by a cell of the space based system are mutually exclusive to frequencies used by the subscriber terminal.

53. The method according to claim 43, wherein the subscriber terminal communicates with the at least one base station by transmitting at frequencies that are authorized to provide uplink communications of the space based system, and/or receiving at frequencies that are authorized to provide uplink communications of the space based system.

54. The method according to claim 53, wherein frequencies used by a cell of the space based system are mutually exclusive to frequencies used by the subscriber terminal.

55. The method according to claim 43, wherein the subscriber terminal communicates with the at least one base station by transmitting at frequencies that are authorized to provide downlink communications of the space based system, and/or receiving at frequencies that are authorized to provide downlink communications of the space based system.

56. The method according to claim 55, wherein frequencies used by a cell of the space based system are mutually exclusive to frequencies used by the subscriber terminal.

57. The method according to claim 38, wherein a satellite of the at least one satellite communicates with subscriber terminals using a first air interface and a base station of the at least one base station communicates with subscriber terminals using a second air interface.

58. The method according to claim 57, wherein the first air interface comprises channels that arc separated by frequency and/or time and the second air interface comprises channels that arc separated by frequency and/or time.

59. The method according to claim 58, wherein the first and/or second air interface comprises a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) protocol.

60. The method according to claim 57, wherein the first air interface comprises channels that are separated by frequency and/or code and the second air interface comprises channels that are separated by frequency and/or code.

61. The method according to claim 60, wherein the first and/or second air interface comprises a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) protocol.

62. The method according to claim 57, wherein the first air interface comprises channels that are separated by frequency and/or time and the second air interface comprises channels that are separated by frequency and/or code.

63. The method according to claim 62, wherein the first air interface comprises a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) protocol and the second air interface comprises a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) protocol.

64. The method according to claim 43, wherein the subscriber terminal comprises at least one variable rate vocoder.

65. The method according to claim 57, wherein the first air interface comprises channels that are separated by frequency and/or code and the second air interface comprises channels that are separated by frequency and/or time.

66. The method according to claim 65, wherein the first air interface comprises a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) protocol and the second air interface comprises a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) protocol.

67. The method according to claim 45, wherein the first and/or second radio resource managers monitor in-band interference, received signal quality and/or received signal strength and avoid using channels containing interference exceeding a predetermined threshold.

68. The method according to claim 43, wherein the subscriber terminal is configured to communicate with the space based system and with the ground based system.

69. The method according to claim 38, wherein the subscriber terminals are configured to communicate with the space based system and with the ground based system.

70. The method according to claim 67, wherein the first and/or second radio resource managers execute utilization of a different communications channel when a quality measure of an existing communications channel has fallen below a predetermined level.

71. The method according to claim 38, wherein the first and/or second network operations centers maintain cognizance of availability of respective satellite and terrestrial resources and administer reconfiguration, assignment and/or reuse of frequencies within the predetermined frequency band.

72. The method according to claim 71, wherein the first and/or second network operations centers utilize past system traffic patterns in the reconfiguration, assignment and/or use of frequencies.

73. The method according to claim 71, wherein the first and/or second network operations centers utilize at least one of hysteresis and negative hysteresis in the reconfiguration, assignment and/or use of frequencies.

74. The method according to claim 38, wherein the space based system is configured to communicate with subscriber terminals that are not capable of communicating with the ground based system and with subscriber terminals that are capable of communicating with the ground based system.