Estimating geolocation of a user terminal

A method for estimating a geolocation, the method comprising:

• tessellating a coverage area into a camping cell and adjacent cells;
• subdividing the camping cell into grid points, where each grid point of the grid points has an associated relative offset from a camping beam center;
• illuminating, with a platform, the camping cell with a camping beam and each of the adjacent cells with adjacent beams;
• receiving a camping beam signal strength and adjacent beams signal strengths for each grid point of the grid points;
• profiling, at each grid point of the grid points, ratios of the camping beam signal strength to each one of the adjacent beams signal strengths;
• mapping the ratios and the associated relative offset of each grid point of the grid points;
• and
• estimating a relative geolocation of a user terminal (UT) from the center based on a UT camping beam signal strength and UT adjacent beams signal strengths,
• wherein the mapping comprises populating a look up table (LUT) with ratios and the associated relative offset, and the estimating by interpolation from measured ratios of the UT camping beam signal strength and the UT adjacent beams signal strengths between the ratios of grid points in the LUT to find a best match, and determines the relative geolocation of the UT based on the best match.

A system to estimate a geolocation, the system comprising:

• a coverage area tessellated into a camping cell and adjacent cells, and the camping cell subdivided into grid points, where each grid point of the grid points has an associated relative offset from a camping beam center;
• a platform to illuminate the camping cell with a camping beam and each of the adjacent cells with adjacent beams;
• and
• a geolocation estimator
• to receive a camping beam signal strength and adjacent beams signal strengths for each grid point of the grid points,
• to profile, at each grid point of the grid points, ratios of the camping beam signal strength to each one of the adjacent beams signal strengths,
• to map the ratios and the associated relative offset of each grid point of the grid points, and
• to estimate a relative geolocation of a user terminal (UT) from the camping beam center based on a UT camping beam signal strength and UT adjacent beams signal strengths,
• wherein the geolocation estimator maps by populating a look up table (LUT) with ratios and the associated relative offset, and estimates by interpolating from measured ratios of the UT camping beam signal strength and the UT adjacent beams signal strengths between the ratios of grid points in the LUT to find a best match, and determines the relative geolocation of the UT based on the best match.

A system to estimate a geolocation, the system comprising:

• a coverage area tessellated into a camping cell and adjacent cells, and the camping cell subdivided into grid points, where each grid point of the grid points has an associated relative offset from a camping beam center;
• a platform to illuminate the camping cell with a camping beam and each of the adjacent cells with adjacent beams;
• and
• a geolocation estimator
• to receive a camping beam signal strength and adjacent beams signal strengths for each grid point of the grid points,
• to profile, at each grid point of the grid points, ratios of the camping beam signal strength to each one of the adjacent beams signal strengths,
• to map the ratios and the associated relative offset of each grid point of the grid points, and
• to estimate a relative geolocation of a user terminal (UT) from the camping beam center based on a UT camping beam signal strength and UT adjacent beams signal strengths,
• wherein the geolocation estimator maps by pretraining neural network weights of a neural network with ratios and the associated relative offset, and estimates the relative geolocation of the UT with the neural network.