Network engineering/systems engineering system for mobile satellite communication system

• US 6,272,341 B1
• Filed: 09/16/1997
• Issued: 08/07/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: ATC Technology Corporation (FedEx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Motient Services, Inc.
• Inventors: Lin, ShihChao, Threadgill, Michael E.
• Primary Examiner(s): CUMMING, WILLIAM D
• Application Number:
  US08/931,622
• Time in Patent Office: 1,421 Days
• Field of Search: 455/427, 455/62, 455/405, 455/13.1, 455/430, 455/12.1, 455/428, 455/9
• US Class Current: 455/428
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18508 with satellite system used as relay, i.e. aeronautical mobile satellite service
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18539 Arrangements for managing radio, resources, i.e. for establishing or releasing a connection

Abstract

A mobile satellite system includes a network engineering/systems engineering (NE/SE) system. The NE/SE performs the processes of comparing expected traffic loads with capability and availability of space and ground resources in the mobile satellite system, formulating tactical plans to maximize available resources of the satellite, and producing frequency plans for different geographical regions and defining circuit pools for different groups of users of the METs. The NE/SE also performs the processes of defining contingency plans for failure situations, such as failure in the satellite or a ground-based equipment outage, configuring the mobile satellite system including logical resources and physical components generating logical and physical configurations, the logical and physical configurations designed to expand the mobile satellite system capacity for increases in traffic demand, while also supporting new features and services of the mobile satellite system. The NE/SE further configures communication paths to external organizations operatively connected to the mobile satellite system, and tracks logistics of network additions to the mobile satellite system via generation of work orders.

Claims

1. A mobile satellite system, comprising:

a network operations controller (NOC) managing and controlling the resources of the mobile satellite system and performing functions associated with the management of the mobile satellite system;

a feederlink earth station (FES) managing communications links between mobile earth terminals (METs), a public switched telephone network (PSTN), and private networks once a communication channel is established with a MET, and performing call management;

a network control center (NCC), operatively connected to said FES and said NOC, said NCC managing real time allocation of communication channels between the METs and said FES, and available communication channels are held in circuit pools managed by at least one Group Controller (GC) within said NCC; and

a network engineering/systems engineering (NE/SE) system operatively connected to said NOC, said NE/SE system performing the following processes;

comparing expected traffic loads with capability and availability of space and ground resources in the mobile satellite system;

formulating tactical plans to maximize available resources of the satellite;

producing frequency plans for different geographical regions and defining one or more circuits for different groups of users of the METs;

configuring the mobile satellite system including resources and components generating configurations, the configurations designed to expand the mobile satellite system capacity for increases in traffic demand, while also supporting features and services of the mobile satellite system;

configuring communication paths to external organizations operatively connected to the mobile satellite system; and

tracking logistics of network additions to the mobile satellite systems responsive to traffic and performance data for planning.

2. In a mobile satellite system, a method for engineering the mobile satellite system comprising the steps of:

(a) comparing expected traffic loads with capability and availability of space and ground resources in the mobile satellite system;

(b) formulating plans to maximize available resources of the satellite;

(c) producing frequency plans for different geographical regions and defining circuit pools for different groups of users of the METs;

(d) configuring the mobile satellite system including resources and components generating configurations, the configurations designed to expand the mobile satellite system capacity forincreases in traffic demand, while also supporting features and services of the mobile satellite system;

(e) configuring communication paths to external organizations operatively connected to the mobile satellite system; and

(f) tracking logistics of network additions to the mobile satellite system via generation of work orders, including collecting and reporting traffic and performance data for future planning.

3. A mobile satellite system, comprising:

a network operations controller (NOC) managing and controlling the resources of the mobile satellite system and performing functions associated with the management of the mobile satellite system;

a feederlink earth station (FES) managing communications links between mobile earth terminals (METs), a public switched telephone network (PSTN), and private networks once a communication channel is established with a MET, and performing call management;

a network control center (NCC), operatively connected to said FES and said NOC, said NCC managing real time allocation of communication channels between the METs and said FES, and available communication channels are held in circuit pools managed by at least one Group Controller (GC) within said NCC; and

a network engineering/systems engineering (NE/SE) system operatively connected to said NOC, said NE/SE system performing the following processes to provide communication service to a user of a mobile communication system;

comparing expected traffic loads with capability and availability of space and ground resources in the mobile satellite system;

formulating tactical plans to maximize available resources of the satellite;

producing frequency plans for different geographical regions and defining one or more circuits for different groups of users of the METs;

configuring the mobile satellite system including resources and components generating configurations, the configurations designed to expand the mobile satellite system capacity for increases in traffic demand, while also supporting features and services of the mobile satellite system;

configuring communication paths to external organizations operatively connected to the mobile satellite system; and

tracking logistics of network additions to the mobile satellite systems responsive to traffic and performance data for planning,

wherein the mobile communication system utilizes the resources to perform the communication service in the mobile satellite system.

4. A mobile satellite system according to claim 3, wherein communication between said NE/SE and said NOC is accomplished for at least one of the following messages:

event messages,

configuration updates,

restoral plan download file name messages,

logs and statistics collection requests, and

file transfer requests.

5. A mobile satellite system according to claim 4, wherein said NE/SE further comprises an NE/SE server, and wherein an event listener process is initiated by said NE/SE server at startup of said NE/SE and said NE/SE server listens for the event messages sent to said NE/SE by said NOC regarding events occurring in the mobile satellite system.

6. A mobile satellite system according to claim 3, wherein communication between said NE/SE and said NOC is accomplished for at least one of the following messages:

NOC configuration uploads,

NOC configuration downloads,

NOC logs and statistics, and

restoral plan.

7. A mobile satellite system according to claim 3, wherein said NE/SE is operatively connected to, and further communicates with:

a Customer Management Information System; and

a Gateway Switch.

8. A mobile satellite system according to claim 7, wherein said Gateway Switch (GWS) comprises a GWS Maintenance Administrative Position (MAP), and a GWS Traffic Data Collection system, and said NE/SE communicates with the GWS MAP, and the GWS Traffic Data Collection system.

9. A mobile satellite system according to claim 3, wherein said NE/SE configures the mobile satellite system including the resources and the components including at least one of the following:

Satellite Power Management,

Satellite power allocation graph,

Channel power allocation graph,

Control Group (CG) Configuration,

L-Band Frequency Allocation,

Beam geography graphical display,

Network Control Center (NCC),

Feederlink Earth Station (FES),

Radio Frequency Equipment (RFE),

Channel Unit Subsystem (CUS),

Test and Monitor Station (TMS),

Support Resources, and

Audit and Reconciliation.

10. A mobile satellite system according to claim 3, wherein said NE/SE configures the mobile satellite system including the resources and the components therein using configuration data, and said NE/SE verifies the configuration data against user defined configuration rules and deploys the configuration data to said NOC for distribution when verified, and said NE/SE maintains consistency between databases associated with said NOC and said NE/SE.

11. A mobile satellite system according to claim 3, wherein said NE/SE comprises a client-server architecture.

12. A mobile satellite system according to claim 3, further comprising a customer management information system (CMIS) operatively connected to said NE/SE, providing customers and service providers with assistance and information including at least one of problem resolution, and service changes, and

wherein said NE/SE provides at least one of registration support to CMIS and consistency checks on the configuration data sent to said CMIS from said NE/SE.

13. A mobile satellite system according to claim 3, wherein said NE/SE initiates NOC database uploads.

14. A mobile satellite system according to claim 3, wherein said NE/SE partitions at least one of the satellite, satellite beams, and control groups into resources including at least one of the circuit pools, virtual networks and frequency plans.

15. In a mobile satellite system, a method for engineering the mobile satellite system to provide communication service to a user of a mobile communication system, comprising the steps of:

(a) comparing expected traffic loads with capability and availability of space and ground resources in the mobile satellite system;

(b) formulating plans to maximize available resources of the satellite;

(c) producing frequency plans for different geographical regions and defining circuit pools for different groups of users of the METs;

(d) configuring the mobile satellite system including resources and components generating configurations, the configurations designed to expand the mobile satellite system capacity for increases in traffic demand, while also supporting features and services of the mobile satellite system;

(e) configuring communication paths to external organizations operatively connected to the mobile satellite system;

(f) tracking logistics of network additions to the mobile satellite system via generation of work orders, including collecting and reporting traffic and performance data for future planning; and

(g) performing the communication service in the mobile satellite system via the mobile communication system utilizing the resources.

16. A method for engineering a mobile satellite system according to claim 15, further comprising the step of communicating between the NE/SE and the NOC for at least one of the following messages:

event messages,

configuration updates,

restoral plan download file name messages,

logs and statistics collection requests, and

file transfer requests.

17. A method for engineering a mobile satellite system according to claim 16, wherein the NE/SE further comprises an NE/SE server, and wherein said method further comprising the step of initiating an event listener process by the NE/SE server at startup of the NE/SE, and listening by the NE/SE server for the event messages sent to the NE/SE by the NOC regarding events occurring in the mobile satellite system.

18. A method for engineering a mobile satellite system according to claim 15, further comprising the step of communicating between the NE/SE and the NOC for at least one of the following messages:

NOC configuration uploads,

NOC configuration downloads,

NOC logs and statistic, and

restoral plans.

19. A method for engineering a mobile satellite system according to claim 15, further comprising the step of communicating with:

a Customer Management Information System; and

a Gateway Switch.

20. A method for engineering a mobile satellite system according to claim 19, wherein the Gateway Switch (GWS) comprises a GWS Maintenance Administrative Position (MAP), and a GWS Traffic Data Collection system, and said method further comprising the step of communicating with the GWS MAP, and the GWS Traffic Data Collection system.

21. A method for engineering a mobile satellite system according to claim 15, wherein said configuring step (d) further comprises the step of configuring the mobile satellite system including the resources and the components including at least one of the following:

Satellite Power Management,

Satellite power allocation graph,

Channel power allocation graph,

Control Group (CG) Configuration,

L-Band Frequency Allocation,

Beam geography graphical display,

Network Control Center (NCC),

Feederlink Earth Station (FES),

Radio Frequency Equipment (RFE),

Channel Unit Subsystem (CUS),

Test and Monitor Station (TMS),

Support Resources, and

Audit and Reconciliation.

22. A method for engineering a mobile satellite system according to claim 15, wherein said configuring step (d) further comprises the step of configuring the mobile satellite system including the resources and the components therein by creating and making available configuration data, verifying the configuration data against user defined configuration rules and deploying the configuration data to the NOC for distribution when verified, and maintaining consistency between databases associated with the NOC and the NE/SE.

23. A method for engineering a mobile satellite system according to claim 15, wherein the NE/SE comprises a client-server architecture for implementing said method.

24. A method for engineering a mobile satellite system according to claim 15, wherein the mobile satellite system further comprises a customer management information system (CMIS) operatively connected to the NE/SE, and said method further comprising the step of providing customers and service providers with assistance and information including at least one of problem resolution, service changes, registration support and consistency checks on the configuration data sent to the CMIS from the NE/SE.

25. A method for engineering a mobile satellite system according to claim 15, further comprising the step of initiating NOC database uploads from the NE/SE.

26. A method for engineering a mobile satellite system according to claim 15, further comprising the step of partitioning at least one of the satellite, satellite beams, and control groups into resources including at least one of the circuit pools, virtual networks and frequency plans.