Systems and methods for reducing satellite feeder link bandwidth/carriers in cellular satellite systems
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A cellular satellite communications method comprising:
- packing at a cellular satellite, information from a plurality of return service link carriers having a total aggregate return service link bandwidth into at least one return feeder link carrier having a total return feeder link bandwidth that is less than the total aggregate return service link bandwidth; and
unpacking at the cellular satellite, information from at least one forward feeder link carrier having a total forward feeder link bandwidth into a plurality of forward service link carriers having a total aggregate forward service link bandwidth that is greater than the total forward feeder link bandwidth.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Information content is nonidentically mapped between service link carriers and feeder link carriers at a cellular satellite. A reduced number of satellite feeder link carriers compared to the number of satellite service link carriers and/or a reduced total bandwidth of the satellite feeder link carriers compared to the satellite service link carriers thereby may be obtained.
241 Citations
47 Claims
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1. A cellular satellite communications method comprising:
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packing at a cellular satellite, information from a plurality of return service link carriers having a total aggregate return service link bandwidth into at least one return feeder link carrier having a total return feeder link bandwidth that is less than the total aggregate return service link bandwidth; and
unpacking at the cellular satellite, information from at least one forward feeder link carrier having a total forward feeder link bandwidth into a plurality of forward service link carriers having a total aggregate forward service link bandwidth that is greater than the total forward feeder link bandwidth. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A cellular satellite communications method comprising:
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packing at a cellular satellite, information from a plurality of return service link carriers into a return feeder link carrier by selectively loading slots in TDMA frames of a return feeder link carrier from TDMA frames of a plurality of return service link carriers that are not fully loaded; and
unpacking at the cellular satellite, information from a forward feeder link carrier into a plurality of forward service link carriers by selectively routing slots in TDMA frames of a forward feeder link carrier to TDMA frames of selected ones of the forward service link carriers;
wherein the unpacking comprises demodulating the forward feeder link carrier and modulating the forward service link carriers at the satellite.
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9. A cellular satellite communications method comprising:
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packing at a cellular satellite, information from a plurality of return service link carriers into a return feeder link carrier by selectively loading slots in TDMA frames of a return feeder link carrier from TDMA frames of a plurality of return service link carriers that are not fully loaded; and
unpacking at the cellular satellite, information from a forward feeder link carrier into a plurality of forward service link carriers by selectively replicating TDMA frames of a forward feeder link carrier to TDMA frames 0f selected ones of the forward service link carriers. - View Dependent Claims (10)
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11. A cellular satellite communications method comprising:
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packing at a cellular satellite, information from a plurality of return service link carriers into a return feeder link carrier by combining direct sequence spread information from return service link carriers that are not fully loaded into one return feeder link carrier; and
unpacking at the cellular satellite, information from a forward feeder link carrier into a plurality of forward service link carriers by selectively routing direct sequence spread information from a forward feeder link carrier to selected ones of the forward service link carriers;
wherein the selectively routing comprises demodulating the forward feeder link carriers and modulating the forward service link carriers at the satellite. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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12. A cellular satellite communications method comprising:
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packing at a cellular satellite, information from a plurality of return service link carriers into a return feeder link carrier by combining direct sequence spread information from return service link carriers that are not fully loaded into one return feeder link carrier; and
unpacking at the cellular satellite, information from a forward feeder link carrier into a plurality of forward service link carriers by selectively replicating direct sequence spread information from a forward feeder link carrier selected ones of the forward service link carriers. - View Dependent Claims (13)
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15. A space segment for a cellular satellite communications system comprising:
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a satellite that is configured to receive information from gateway over a plurality of forward feeder link carriers, to transmit information the gateway over a plurality of return feeder link carriers, to transmit information to a plurality of satellite cells over a plurality of forward service link carriers and to receive information from the plurality of satellite cells over a plurality of return service like carriers, the satellite being further configured to pack information from the plurality of return service link carriers into the plurality of return feeder link carriers;
wherein the satellite is further configured to unpack information from the plurality of forward feeder link carriers into the plurality of toward service link carriers; and
wherein the satellite is further configured to pack information from the plurality of return service link carriers having a total aggregate return service link bandwidth into at least one return feeder link carrier having a total return feeder link bandwidth that is less than the total aggregate return service link bandwidth, and to unpack information from at least one forward feeder link carrier having a total forward feeder link bandwidth into the plurality of forward service link carriers having a total aggregate forward service link bandwidth that is greater than the total forward feeder link bandwidth. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A space segment for a cellular satellite communications system comprising:
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a satellite that is configured to receive information from a gateway over a plurality of forward feeder link carriers, to transmit information the gateway over a plurality of return feeder link carriers, to transmit information to plurality of satellite cells over a plurality of forward service link carriers and to receive information from the plurality of satellite cells over a plurality of return service link carriers, the satellite being further configured to pack information from the plurality of return service link carriers into the plurality of return feeder link carrier;
wherein the satellite is further configured to unpack information from the plurality of forward feeder link carriers into the plurality of forward service link carriers;
wherein the satellite is further configured to selectively load slots in TDMA frames of a return feeder link carrier from TDMA frames of a plurality of return service link carriers that are not fully loaded, and to selectively route slots in TDMA frames of a forward feeder link carrier to TDMA frames of selected ones of the forward service link carriers; and
wherein the satellite is further configured to demodulate forward feeder link carrier and modulate the forward service link carriers.
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22. A space segment for a cellular satellite communications system comprising:
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a satellite that is configured to receive information from a gateway over a plurality of forward feeder link carriers, to transmit information to the gateway over a plurality of return feeder link carriers, to transmit information to a plurality of satellite cells over a plurality of forward service link carriers and to receive information from the plurality of satellite cells over a plurality of return service link carriers, the satellite being further configured to pack information from the plurality of return service link carriers into the plurality of return feeder link carriers;
wherein the satellite is further configured to unpack information from the plurality of forward feeder link carriers into the plurality of forward service link carriers; and
wherein the satellite is further configured to selectively load slots in TDMA frames of a return feeder link carrier from TDMA frames of a plurality of return service link carriers that are not fully loaded, and to selectively replicate TDMA frames of a forward feeder link carrier to TDMA frames of selected ones of the forward service link carriers. - View Dependent Claims (23)
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24. A space segment for a cellular satellite communications system comprising:
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a satellite that is configured to receive information from a gateway over a plurality of forward feeder link carriers, to transmit information to the gateway over a plurality of return feeder link carriers, to transmit information to a plurality of satellite cells over a plurality of forward service link carriers and to recieve information from the plurality of satellite cells over a plurality of return service link carriers, the satellite being further configured to pack information from the plurality of return service link carriers into the plurality of return feeder link carriers;
wherein the satellite is further configured to combine direct sequence spread return service link carriers that are not fully loaded into one return feeder link carrier; and
wherein the satellite is further configured to demodulate the return service link carriers and modulate the return feeder link carrier.
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25. A space segment for a cellular satellite communications system comprising:
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a satellite that is configured to receive information from a gateway over a plurality of forward feeder link carriers, to transmit information to the gateway over a plurality of return feeder link carriers, to transmit information to a plurality of satellite cells over a plurality of forward service link carriers and to receive information from the plurality of satellite cells over a plurality of return service link carriers, the satellite being further configured to pack information from the plurality of return service link carriers into the plurality of return feeder link carriers;
wherein the satellite is further configured to unpack information from the plurality of forward feeder link carriers into the plurality of forward service link carriers;
wherein the satellite is further configured to combine direct sequence spread information from return service link carriers that are not fully loaded into one return feeder link carrier, and to selectively route direct sequence spread information from a forward feeder link carrier to selected ones of the forward service link carriers; and
wherein the satellite is further configured to demodulate the forward feeder link carriers and modulate the forward service link carriers.
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26. A space segment for a cellular satellite communications system comprising:
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a satellite that is configured to receive information from gateway over a plurality of forward feeder link carriers, to transmit information to the gateway over a plurality of return feeder link carriers, to transmit information to a plurality of satellite cells over a plurality of forward service link carriers and to receive information from the plurality of satellite cells over a plurality of return service link carriers, the satellite being further configured to pack information from the plurality of return service link carriers into the plurality of return feeder link carriers;
wherein the satellite is further configured to unpack information from the plurality of forward feeder link carriers into the plurality of forward service link carriers; and
wherein the satellite is further configured to combine direct sequence spread information from return service link carriers that are not fully loaded into one return feeder link carrier, and selectively replicate direct sequence spread information from a forward feeder link carrier to selected ones of the forward service link carriers. - View Dependent Claims (27)
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28. A satellite for a cellular satellite communications system comprising:
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first means for receiving first information from a gateway over a first plurality of forward feeder link carriers having a total forward feeder link bandwidth;
first means for transmitting the first information to a plurality of satellite cells over a second plurality of forward service link carriers having a total aggregate forward service link bandwidth, wherein the total forward feed link bandwidth is less than the total aggregate forward service link bandwidth;
second means for receiving second information from the plurality of satellite cells over a third plurality of return service link carriers having a total aggregate return service link bandwidth; and
second means for transmitting the second information to the gateway over a fourth plurality of return feeder link carriers having a total return feeder link bandwidth, wherein the total return feeder link bandwidth is less than the total aggregate return service link bandwidth. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A cellular satellite communications method comprising:
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receiving first information from a gateway over a first plurality of forward feeder link carriers having a total forward feeder link bandwidth;
transmitting the first information to a plurality of satellite cells over a second plurality of forward service link carriers having a total aggregate forward service link bandwidth, wherein the total forward feeder link bandwidth is less than the total aggregate forward service link bandwidth;
receiving second information from the plurality of satellite cells over a third plurality of return service link carriers having a total aggregate return service link bandwidth; and
transmitting the second information to the gateway over a fourth plurality of return feeder link carriers having a total return feeder link bandwidth, wherein the total return feeder link bandwidth is less than the total aggregate return service link bandwidth. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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47. A method according to claim wherein the transmitting the first information comprises transmitting the direct sequence information in selected ones of the forward service link carriers reduced power.
Specification