Demand-based connection management integrated services access terminal (ISAT) for satellite communications system
First Claim
1. A method of providing satellite communication network connectivity between communication devices coupled to geographically distributed earth stations comprising the steps of:
- (a) at each remote earth station of a plurality of remote earth stations, coupling a modulator, having a transmission carrier frequency associated with said each remote earth station, to an uplink port of a frame relay protocol-based switch with which one or more communication devices served by said each remote earth station are interfaced, and coupling a tunable demodulator to a downlink port of said frame relay protocol-based switch;
(b) installing, at a hub earth station of said plurality of earth stations, a plurality of demodulators, which are operative to demodulate messages modulated on respectively different carrier frequencies transmitted from said remote earth stations, and coupling respective ones of said plurality of demodulators to respectively different downlink ports of a frame relay protocol-based switch of said hub station;
(c) in response to a request, from a communication device coupled to an originating remote earth station of said plurality of remote earth stations, for communication connectivity with a communication device coupled to a destination remote station of said plurality of remote earth stations, causing the modulator of said originating remote earth station to transmit a communication connectivity request message to said hub earth station; and
(d) at said hub earth station, in response to said communication connectivity request message, transmitting to said originating remote earth station an originating remote earth station demodulator tuning message that is effective to tune the tunable demodulator at said originating remote earth station to the transmission carrier frequency associated with said destination remote earth station, and transmitting to said destination remote earth station a destination remote earth station demodulator tuning message that is effective to tune the tunable demodulator at said destination remote earth station to the transmission carrier frequency associated with said originating remote earth station.
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Abstract
A demand-based connection management satellite communication network includes a plurality of geographically distributed earth stations, each earth station having a frame relay protocol-based switch for interfacing message signals between terminal devices and modem unit. One of the earth stations is a hub station whose modem unit includes plural demodulators tuned to carrier frequencies transmitted from other, remote stations. Each remote station has at least one hub-programmable demodulator and/or a programmable modulator. When an originating station receives a request from a terminal device for connectivity with a terminal device at a destination station, it transmits a connectivity request message to the hub station. In response, the hub station checks a demodulator and/or modulator frequency assignment database for demodulator availability. If each originating and destination station has an available demodulator and modulator pair, the hub transmits tuning messages to the two stations, which tune their programmable modem components to each other'"'"'s carrier frequency, and thereby provide bidirectional connectivity between the two remote stations.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method of providing satellite communication network connectivity between communication devices coupled to geographically distributed earth stations comprising the steps of:
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(a) at each remote earth station of a plurality of remote earth stations, coupling a modulator, having a transmission carrier frequency associated with said each remote earth station, to an uplink port of a frame relay protocol-based switch with which one or more communication devices served by said each remote earth station are interfaced, and coupling a tunable demodulator to a downlink port of said frame relay protocol-based switch;
(b) installing, at a hub earth station of said plurality of earth stations, a plurality of demodulators, which are operative to demodulate messages modulated on respectively different carrier frequencies transmitted from said remote earth stations, and coupling respective ones of said plurality of demodulators to respectively different downlink ports of a frame relay protocol-based switch of said hub station;
(c) in response to a request, from a communication device coupled to an originating remote earth station of said plurality of remote earth stations, for communication connectivity with a communication device coupled to a destination remote station of said plurality of remote earth stations, causing the modulator of said originating remote earth station to transmit a communication connectivity request message to said hub earth station; and
(d) at said hub earth station, in response to said communication connectivity request message, transmitting to said originating remote earth station an originating remote earth station demodulator tuning message that is effective to tune the tunable demodulator at said originating remote earth station to the transmission carrier frequency associated with said destination remote earth station, and transmitting to said destination remote earth station a destination remote earth station demodulator tuning message that is effective to tune the tunable demodulator at said destination remote earth station to the transmission carrier frequency associated with said originating remote earth station. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A satellite communication system comprising:
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a plurality of geographically distributed remote earth stations; and
a hub earth station; and
whereineach remote earth station includes a modulator having a transmission carrier frequency associated with said each remote earth station and being coupled to an uplink port of a frame relay protocol-based switch, and a tunable demodulator, which is operative to demodulate messages modulated on a carrier frequency transmitted from another remote earth station, and being coupled to a downlink port of said frame relay protocol-based switch;
said hub earth station includes a plurality of demodulators, each of which is operative to demodulate messages modulated on carrier frequencies transmitted from said remote earth stations, and is coupled to respectively different downlink ports of a frame relay protocol-based switch of said hub earth station;
in response to a request from a communication device coupled to an originating remote earth station for communication connectivity with a communication device coupled to a destination remote earth station, the modulator of said originating remote earth station is operative to transmit a communication connectivity request message to said hub earth station; and
in response to said communication connectivity request message, said hub earth station is operative to transmit, to said originating remote earth station, an originating remote earth station demodulator tuning message that is effective to tune the demodulator at said originating remote earth station to the transmission carrier frequency associated with said destination remote earth station, and to transmit, to said destination remote earth station, a destination remote earth station demodulator tuning message that is effective to tune the demodulator at said destination remote earth station to the transmission carrier frequency associated with said originating remote earth station. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of providing satellite communication network connectivity between communication devices coupled to geographically distributed earth stations comprising the steps of:
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(a) at each remote earth station of a plurality of remote earth stations, coupling a modulator, having a transmission carrier frequency associated with said each remote earth station, to an uplink port of a packet switch with which one or more communication devices served by said each remote earth station are interfaced, and coupling a demodulator to a downlink port of said packet switch;
(b) installing, at a hub earth station of said plurality of earth stations, a plurality of demodulators, which are operative to demodulate messages modulated on respectively different carrier frequencies transmitted from said remote earth stations, and coupling respective ones of said plurality of demodulators to respectively different downlink ports of the packet switch of said hub station;
(c) in response to a request, from a communication device coupled to an originating remote earth station of said plurality of remote earth stations, for communication connectivity with a communication device coupled to a destination remote station of said plurality of remote earth stations, causing the modulator of said originating remote earth station to transmit a communication connectivity request message to said hub earth station; and
(d) at said hub earth station, in response to said communication connectivity request message, transmitting to said originating remote earth station an originating remote earth station demodulator tuning message that is effective to tune the demodulator at said originating remote earth station to the transmission carrier frequency associated with said destination remote earth station, and transmitting to said destination remote earth station a destination remote earth station demodulator tuning message that is effective to tune the demodulator at said destination remote earth station to the transmission carrier frequency associated with said originating remote earth station.
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22. A satellite communication system comprising:
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a plurality of geographically distributed remote earth stations; and
a hub earth station; and
wherein each remote earth station includes a modulator having a transmission carrier frequency associated with said each remote earth station and being coupled to an uplink port of a packet switch, and a demodulator, which is operative to demodulate messages modulated on a carrier frequency transmitted from another remote earth station, and being coupled to downlink port of said packet switch;
said hub earth station includes a plurality of demodulators, each of which is operative to demodulate messages modulated on carrier frequencies transmitted from said remote earth stations, and is coupled to respectively different downlink ports of a packet switch of said hub earth station;
in response to a request from a communication device coupled to an originating remote earth station for communication connectivity with a communication device coupled to a destination remote earth station, the modulator of said originating remote earth station is operative to transmit a communication connectivity request message to said hub earth station; and
in response to said communication connectivity request message, said hub earth station operative to transmit, to said originating remote earth station, an originating remote earth station demodulator tuning message that is effective to tune the demodulator at said originating remote earth station to the transmission carrier frequency associated with said destination remote earth station, and to transmit, to said destination remote earth station, a destination remote earth station demodulator tuning message that is effective to tune the demodulator at said destination remote earth station to the transmission carrier frequency associated with said originating remote earth station.
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23. A earth communication system comprising:
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a plurality of geographically distributed remote earth stations, wherein each remote earth station is coupled to a communication device and includes a modulator and demodulator;
wherein the communication device is capable of generating a request for communication connectivity with a second communication device coupled to a second remote earth station;
wherein the modulator has a transmission carrier frequency associated with each remote earth station and is coupled to an uplink port of a packet switch and is capable of transmitting a communication connectivity request message, wherein the demodulator demodulates messages transmitted from another remote earth station and is coupled to a downlink port of the packet switch; and
a hub earth station, wherein the hub earth station includes a plurality of demodulators, wherein each demodulator is tuned to carrier frequencies transmitted from the remote earth stations, is coupled to respectively different downlink ports of the packet switch and is capable of transmitting tuning messages to each remote earth station effective to tune the demodulator of an originating remote earth station to the frequency associated with a destination remote earth station and to tune the demodulator of the destination remote earth station to the frequency associated with the originating remote earth station.
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24. A hub earth station, comprising:
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a plurality of demodulators, each of which is coupled to respectively different downlink ports of a frame relay protocol-based switch of said hub earth station and is operative to demodulate messages modulated on carrier frequencies transmitted from a plurality of remote earth stations;
a receiver that accepts a communication connectivity request message from an originating remote earth station, wherein the communication connectivity request message is generated by a modulator in the originating remote earth station in response to a request from a communication device coupled to the originating remote earth station for communication connectivity with a communication device coupled to a destination remote earth station; and
a transmitter that sends, to the originating remote earth station, an originating remote earth station demodulator tuning message that is effective to tune a demodulator at the originating remote earth station to the transmission carrier frequency associated with the destination remote earth station, and for transmitting, to the destination remote earth station, a destination remote earth station demodulator tuning message that is effective to tune a demodulator at the destination remote earth station to the transmission carrier frequency associated with the originating remote earth station.
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25. A method for use with a hub earth station comprising a plurality of demodulators, each of which is coupled to respectively different downlink ports of a frame relay protocol-based switch of said hub earth station and is operative to demodulate messages modulated on carrier frequencies transmitted from a plurality of remote earth stations, said method comprising the steps of:
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receiving a communication connectivity request message from an originating remote earth station, wherein the communication connectivity request message is generated by a modulator in the originating remote earth station in response to a request from a communication device coupled to the originating remote earth station for communication connectivity with a communication device coupled to a destination remote earth station; and
transmitting, to the originating remote earth station, an originating remote earth station demodulator tuning message that is effective to tune the demodulator at the originating remote earth station to the transmission carrier frequency associated with the destination remote earth station, and for transmitting, to the destination remote earth station, a destination remote earth station demodulator tuning message that is effective to tune a demodulator at the destination remote earth station to the transmission carrier frequency associated with the originating remote earth station.
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Specification