Systems, methods and network components that provide different satellite spot beam return carrier groupings and reuse patterns

• US 8,520,561 B2
• Filed: 02/03/2010
• Issued: 08/27/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ATC Technology Corporation (FedEx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: ATC Technology Corporation (FedEx Corporation)
• Inventors: Nguyen, Serge, Dutta, Santanu
• Primary Examiner(s): Yao, Kwang B
• Assistant Examiner(s): ANDREWS, LEON T
• Application Number:
  US12/699,466
• Publication Number:
  US 20100309828A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,301 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/281
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18539 Arrangements for managing radio, resources, i.e. for establishing or releasing a connection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/06 the signals being represented by different frequencies combined with time-division multiplexing H04L5/26
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/02 Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/06 Airborne or Satellite Networks space-based or airborne stations H04B7/185

Abstract

In some embodiments, a satellite communications network dynamically regulates carrier assignment for bidirectional communications between a satellite and radioterminals. The satellite communications network includes a resource manager that regulates the carrier assignments by selecting among a plurality of FDD return subcarriers, with potentially different subcarrier bandwidths and supporting different radio access technologies, within at least one FDD return carrier grouping for coupling to a selected one of a plurality of FDD forward carriers, and by controlling the satellite network to receive communications from the radioterminal on the selected FDD return subcarrier and to transmit communications to the radioterminal on the selected FDD forward carrier.

Claims

1. A communications network comprising:

a resource manager that is configured to regulate carrier assignment for bidirectional wireless communications between a network component and a plurality of radioterminals, the carrier assignment regulation including selecting among a plurality of frequency division duplexing (FDD) return subcarriers within at least one FDD return carrier grouping for coupling to a selected one or more of a plurality of FDD forward carriers, and including controlling the network component to receive communications from a first one of the radioterminals on the selected FDD return subcarrier and to transmit communications to the radioterminals on the selected one or more FDD forward carriers,

wherein the resource manager is further configured to dynamically couple and decouple particular ones of the FDD return subcarriers to particular ones of the FDD forward carriers in response to changing communication bandwidth requirements between the radioterminals and the network component and/or changes in prevailing interference conditions from the radioterminals; and

wherein the resource manager is further configured to select a plurality of FDD return subcarriers from among FDD return subcarriers that are located within a plurality of different FDD return carrier groupings for coupling to a particular one of the FDD forward carriers for simultaneous bidirectional communications between the first radioterminal and the network component in response to communication bandwidth requirements from the first radioterminal or prevailing interference conditions from the first radioterminal, and the plurality of FDD return subcarriers that are coupled to the particular one of the FDD forward carriers reside in at least two different FDD return carrier groupings that are spaced apart in a defined frequency spectrum with at least one non-selected FDD return carrier grouping located therebetween, and the plurality of FDD return subcarriers coupled to the particular one of the FDD forward carriers are used at a same time for return communications from the first radioterminal to the network component while forward communications from the network component to at least some the radioterminals, including the first radioterminal, are occurring using the particular one of the FDD forward carriers.

2. The communications network of claim 1, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to control the network component to selectively couple each of a plurality of selected FDD forward carriers to a variable number of selected FDD return subcarriers to provide bidirectional communications between the network component and a plurality of the radioterminals.

3. The communications network of claim 2, wherein:

at least some of the FDD forward carriers are coupled with a different number of the FDD return subcarriers.

4. The communications network of claim 1, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to selectively couple more FDD return subcarriers to the particular one of the FDD forward carriers in response to at least a threshold increase in communication traffic to the network component from radioterminals that are assigned to receive communications from the network component through the particular one of the FDD forward carriers.

5. The communications network of claim 4, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to separately decouple selected ones of the FDD return subcarriers from the particular one of the FDD forward carriers in response to at least a threshold decrease in communication traffic to the network component from radioterminals that are assigned to receive communications from the network component through the particular one of the FDD forward carriers.

6. The communications network of claim 1, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to regulate a number of FDD return subcarriers that are assigned to a particular radioterminal in response to a bandwidth requirement for communications from the particular radioterminal to the network component.

7. The communications network of claim 6, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to select the number of FDD return subcarriers that are assigned to the particular radioterminal from among a plurality of different FDD return carrier groupings.

8. The communications network of claim 6, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to dynamically vary a number of FDD return subcarriers that are assigned to the particular radioterminal in response to changing requirements for communication bandwidth from the particular radioterminal and/or changes in the prevailing interference conditions from the particular radioterminal.

9. The communications network of claim 1, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to respond to an increased communication bandwidth requirement of the first radioterminal assigned to receive network component communications through a first FDD forward carrier by decoupling a first FDD return subcarrier within a first FDD return carrier grouping from a second FDD forward carrier so that it is not available for use by radioterminals that are assigned to receive communications through the second FDD forward carrier, and by coupling the first FDD return subcarrier to the first FDD forward carrier for use by the first radioterminal.

10. The communications network of claim 9, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to respond to an increased communication bandwidth requirement of a second radioterminal assigned to receive network component communications through the first FDD forward carrier by decoupling a second FDD return subcarrier within a second FDD return carrier grouping from the second FDD forward carrier so that it is not available for use by radioterminals that are assigned to receive communications through the second FDD forward carrier, and by coupling the second FDD return subcarrier to the first FDD forward carrier for use by the second radioterminal.

11. The communications network of claim 1, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to dynamically remove and add back particular ones of the FDD return subcarriers from a set of the FDD return subcarriers that is available for selective coupling to the plurality of FDD forward carriers in response to a determination of levels of interference present in the frequency ranges of the particular ones of the FDD return subcarriers.

12. The communications network of claim 11, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to remove a first FDD return subcarrier from a first FDD return carrier grouping from the set of the FDD return subcarriers that are available for selective coupling to the plurality of FDD forward carriers in response to a determination that at least a threshold level of interference is present in the first FDD return subcarrier, and to return the first FDD return subcarrier back to the set of the FDD return subcarriers that are available for selective coupling to the plurality of FDD forward carriers in response to a determination that less than the threshold level of interference is present in the frequency range of the first FDD return subcarrier.

13. The communications network of claim 12, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to add a second FDD return subcarrier from a second FDD return carrier grouping to the set of the FDD return subcarriers that are available for selective coupling to the plurality of FDD forward carriers in response to the removal of the first FDD return subcarrier.

14. The communications network of claim 11, wherein:

the resource manager is configured to control the network component to cease coupling particular ones of the FDD return subcarriers that are within a first FDD return carrier grouping to a first FDD forward carrier while continuing to couple other ones of the FDD return subcarriers within the first FDD return carrier grouping to the first FDD forward carrier for bidirectional communications between the network component and the radioterminals.

15. The communications network of claim 1, wherein:

the resource manager is configured to selectively couple each of the FDD forward carriers with a variable number of the FDD return subcarriers within a same FDD return carrier grouping.

16. The communications network of claim 1, wherein:

the resource manager is configured to selectively couple one of the FDD forward carriers to a plurality of the FDD return subcarriers that are located within a plurality of different FDD return carrier groupings.

17. The communications network of claim 1, wherein:

each of the FDD forward carriers have the same frequency bandwidth as each of the FDD return carrier groupings.

18. The communications network of claim 17, wherein:

each of the FDD forward carriers have a 1.25 MHz frequency bandwidth and each of the FDD return carrier groupings have a 1.25 MHz frequency bandwidth.

19. The communications network of claim 18, wherein:

the FDD return subcarriers comprise a plurality of wideband and narrowband radio bearers, comprising a plurality of radio access technologies.

20. The communications network of claim 19, wherein:

the narrowband radio bearers include Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) radio access technology, with bandwidths of 6.4 kHz and 12.8 kHz, and the wideband radio bearer includes EVDO (EVolution-Data Optimized) radio access technology with 1.25 MHz bandwidth.

21. The communications network of claim 1, wherein:

the resource manager resides in a space based component of the communications network.

22. The communications network of claim 1, wherein:

the resource manager resides in terrestrial based infrastructure connected to a ground station.

23. A communications network comprising:

a resource manager that is configured to regulate assignment of frequency division duplexing (FDD) forward carriers and FDD return carriers operated by a network component to provide a plurality of service areas for bidirectional communications with radioterminals, wherein the FDD forward carriers have different reuse patterns than the FDD return carriers across the plurality of service areas,

wherein at least some of the FDD return carriers comprise FDD return carrier groupings, each of the FDD return carrier groupings comprise a plurality of FDD return subcarriers;

the resource manager is further configured to dynamically couple and decouple particular ones of the FDD return subcarriers to particular ones of the FDD forward carriers in response to changing communication bandwidth requirements from the radioterminals and/or changes in prevailing interference conditions from the radioterminals; and

the resource manager is further configured to select a plurality of FDD return subcarriers from among FDD return subcarriers that are located within a plurality of different FDD return carrier groupings for coupling to a particular one of the FDD forward carriers for simultaneous bidirectional communications between a first one of the radioterminals and the network component in response to communication bandwidth requirements from the first radioterminal or prevailing interference conditions from the first radioterminal, and the plurality of FDD return subcarriers that are coupled to the particular one of the FDD forward carriers reside in at least two different FDD return carrier groupings that are spaced apart in a defined frequency spectrum with at least one non-selected FDD return carrier grouping located therebetween, and the plurality of FDD return subcarriers coupled to the particular one of the FDD forward carriers are used at a same time for return communications from the first radioterminal to the network component while forward communications from the network component to at least some the radioterminals, including the first radioterminal, are occurring using the particular one of the FDD forward carriers.

24. The communications network of claim 23, wherein:

the resource manager is configured to regulate assignment of frequency division duplexing (FDD) forward carriers and FDD return carriers operated by a space based component of the communications network to provide a plurality of spot beam service areas for bidirectional communications with radioterminals, wherein the FDD forward carriers have different reuse patterns than the FDD return carriers across the plurality of spot beam service areas.

25. The communications network of claim 23, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to regulate the assignment to provide a higher frequency reuse factor for greater physical separation between reuse of FDD return carriers relative to reuse of FDD forward carriers.

26. The communications network of claim 23, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to regulate the assignment to provide a uniform frequency reuse pattern for FDD forward carriers and a non-uniform frequency reuse pattern for FDD return carriers.

27. The communications network of claim 23, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to control the network component to selectively couple each of at least some of the FDD forward carriers to a variable number of selected FDD return subcarriers that are used in different ones of the service areas.

28. The communications network of claim 23, wherein:

at least some of the service areas each have different numbers of FDD return subcarriers.

29. The communications network of claim 28, wherein:

the service areas each have the same number of FDD forward carriers.

30. The communications network of claim 23, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to dynamically vary the frequency reuse pattern assigned for FDD return subcarriers in response to changing requirements for communication bandwidth from radioterminals to the network component.

31. The communications network of claim 30, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to dynamically assign and deassign particular ones of the FDD return subcarriers to particular ones of the service areas in response to changing communication bandwidth requirements between the radioterminals and the network component.

32. The communications network of claim 31, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to assign more FDD return subcarriers to a particular one of the service areas in response to at least a threshold increase in communication traffic to the network component from radioterminals within the particular one of the service areas.

33. The communications network of claim 31, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to assign more FDD return subcarriers to a particular one of the service areas in response to at least a threshold increase in a number of radioterminals that are located within the particular one of the service areas and are registered to communicate with the network component providing the particular one of the service areas.

34. The communications network of claim 23, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to dynamically vary the frequency reuse pattern assigned for FDD return subcarriers in response to determined levels of interference that are present in the frequency ranges of the FDD return subcarriers.

35. The communications network of claim 34, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to dynamically assign and deassign particular ones of the FDD return subcarriers to particular ones of the service areas in response to changing levels of interference present in the frequency ranges of the particular ones of the FDD return subcarriers.

36. The communications network of claim 34, wherein:

the resource manager is further configured to remove a first FDD return subcarrier in a first FDD return carrier grouping from a set of the FDD return subcarriers that are available for selective assignment to a selected one of the service areas in response to a determination that at least a threshold level of interference is present in a frequency range of the first FDD return subcarrier, and to return the first FDD return subcarrier back to the set of the FDD return subcarriers that are available for selective assignment to the selected one of the service areas in response to a determination that less the threshold level of interference is present in the frequency range of the first FDD return subcarrier.

37. The communications network of claim 23, wherein:

each of the FDD forward carriers have the same frequency bandwidth as each of the FDD return carrier groupings.

38. The communications network of claim 37, wherein:

each of the FDD forward carriers have a 1.25 MHz frequency bandwidth and each of the FDD return carrier groupings have a 1.25 MHz frequency bandwidth.

39. The communications network of claim 38, wherein:

each of the FDD return subcarriers have a 6.4 kHz frequency bandwidth.

40. The communications network of claim 38, wherein:

each of the FDD return subcarriers have a 12.8 kHz frequency bandwidth.

41. The communications network of claim 23, wherein:

the resource manager resides in a space based component of the network component.

42. The communications network of claim 23, wherein:

the resource manager resides in terrestrial based infrastructure connected to a ground station.