System for integrating an airborne wireless cellular network with terrestrial wireless cellular networks and the public switched telephone network
First Claim
1. A system for providing wireless data communication services to a plurality of wireless subscriber devices that are located in an aircraft, comprising:
- aircraft network, located in said aircraft, for generating radio frequency communication signals to communicate with a plurality of wireless subscriber devices that are located in said aircraft to exchange data between said plurality of wireless subscriber devices and said aircraft network;
air-to-ground network for bi-directional radio frequency communications between said aircraft and a ground-based communications network having at least one ground-based base station located on the ground for interconnection with at least one packet data switching system; and
aircraft interface for interconnecting said aircraft network and said air-to-ground network to establish bi-directional data communications sessions between said wireless subscriber devices and said ground-based communications network to interconnect said wireless subscriber devices with said packet data switching system by exchanging both subscriber data traffic and at least one of network signaling and administrative data on separate concurrently available logical channels, comprising;
in-cabin call termination for providing a signaling termination for each call from a one of said wireless subscriber devices that are located in the aircraft to provide protocol management of signaling to both said ground-based communications network and said wireless subscriber devices, comprising;
a first aircraft interface channel for providing a radio frequency interface to the wireless subscriber devices to provide a pseudo base station with transparent handset signaling to mimic the operation of the ground-based base station to the wireless subscriber devices; and
a second aircraft interface channel for providing a radio frequency interface to the ground-based base transceiver to provide mirrored handset signaling to mimic the operation of the wireless subscriber devices to the ground-based base station.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present non-terrestrial feature transparency system spoofs the Air-to-Ground Network and the ground-based cellular communication network into thinking that the wireless subscriber devices have no special considerations associated with their operation, even though the wireless subscriber devices are located on an aircraft in flight. This architecture requires that the non-terrestrial feature transparency system on board the aircraft replicate the full functionality of a given wireless subscriber device, that has a certain predetermined feature set from a ground-based wireless service provider, at another wireless subscriber device located within the aircraft. This mirroring of wireless subscriber device attributes enables a localized cell for in-cabin communication yet retains the same wireless subscriber device attributes for the air-to-ground link. The Air-to-Ground Network transmits both the subscriber data (comprising voice and/or other data) as well as feature set data between the Aircraft in-Cabin Network and the ground-based cellular communication network to thereby enable the wireless subscriber devices that are located in the aircraft to receive consistent wireless communication services in both the terrestrial (ground-based) and non-terrestrial regions.
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Citations
44 Claims
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1. A system for providing wireless data communication services to a plurality of wireless subscriber devices that are located in an aircraft, comprising:
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aircraft network, located in said aircraft, for generating radio frequency communication signals to communicate with a plurality of wireless subscriber devices that are located in said aircraft to exchange data between said plurality of wireless subscriber devices and said aircraft network; air-to-ground network for bi-directional radio frequency communications between said aircraft and a ground-based communications network having at least one ground-based base station located on the ground for interconnection with at least one packet data switching system; and aircraft interface for interconnecting said aircraft network and said air-to-ground network to establish bi-directional data communications sessions between said wireless subscriber devices and said ground-based communications network to interconnect said wireless subscriber devices with said packet data switching system by exchanging both subscriber data traffic and at least one of network signaling and administrative data on separate concurrently available logical channels, comprising; in-cabin call termination for providing a signaling termination for each call from a one of said wireless subscriber devices that are located in the aircraft to provide protocol management of signaling to both said ground-based communications network and said wireless subscriber devices, comprising; a first aircraft interface channel for providing a radio frequency interface to the wireless subscriber devices to provide a pseudo base station with transparent handset signaling to mimic the operation of the ground-based base station to the wireless subscriber devices; and a second aircraft interface channel for providing a radio frequency interface to the ground-based base transceiver to provide mirrored handset signaling to mimic the operation of the wireless subscriber devices to the ground-based base station. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method for providing wireless data communication services to a plurality of wireless subscriber devices that are located in an aircraft, comprising:
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communicating, via an aircraft network located in said aircraft that generates radio frequency communication signals, with a plurality of said wireless subscriber devices that are located in said aircraft to exchange data between said plurality of wireless subscriber devices and said aircraft network; communicating, via an air-to-ground network that generates radio frequency communications, between said aircraft and a ground-based communications network having at least one ground-based base station located on the ground for interconnection with at last one packet data switching system; and interconnecting said aircraft network and said air-to-ground network to establish bi-directional data communications sessions between said wireless subscriber devices and said ground-based communications network to interconnect said wireless subscriber devices with said packet data switching system by exchanging both subscriber data traffic and at least one of network signaling and administrative data on separate concurrently available logical channels, comprising; providing a signaling termination for each call from a one of said wireless subscriber devices that are located in the aircraft to provide protocol management of signaling to both said ground-based communications network and said wireless subscriber devices, comprising; providing a first aircraft interface channel to provide a radio frequency interface to the wireless subscriber devices to provide a pseudo base station with transparent handset signaling to mimic the operation of the ground-based base station to the wireless subscriber devices; and providing a second aircraft interface channel to provide a radio frequency interface to the ground-based base transceiver to provide mirrored handset signaling to mimic the operation of the wireless subscriber devices to the ground-based base station. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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Specification