Beam switching user data outage reduction in a spot beam satellite system
AssigneeHughes Network Systems, LLC
InventorsEric Humphrey, Suresh Korada, Guy Montgomery
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for beam switching by a User Terminal (UT). The method includes initiating a beam switch between an old beam and a new beam when the UT is disposed in an overlap area of the old beam and the new beam; duplicating over the new beam, at a Network Access Point (NAP), user traffic to the UT; and assigning a Time Division Multiplex Access (TDMA) allocation for the UT on the new beam, prior to an arrival of the UT on the new beam, where the user traffic traversing a satellite network remains uninterrupted during the beam switch and the NAP redirects user traffic for the UT via the old beam to the new beam.
Claims20
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions embodied thereon, the instructions being executable by one or more processors to perform a method for beam switching by a user terminal (UT), the method comprising:
- initiating a beam switch between an old beam and a new beam when the UT is disposed in an overlap area of the old beam and the new beam;
- duplicating over the new beam, at a Network Access Point (NAP), user traffic to the UT;
- and
- assigning a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) allocation for the UT on the new beam, prior to an arrival of the UT on the new beam,
- wherein the user traffic traversing a satellite network remains uninterrupted during the beam switch, the NAP redirects user traffic for the UT via the old beam to the new beam, the user traffic comprises Internet Protocol (IP) traffic comprising a flow, the flow is not disconnected due to the beam switch, and a protocol associated with the flow resolves the duplicating.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions embodied thereon, the instructions being executable by one or more processors to perform a method for beam switching by a user terminal (UT), the method comprising:
- initiating a beam switch between an old beam and a new beam when the UT is disposed in an overlap area of the old beam and the new beam;
- duplicating user data traffic destined for the UT in the old beam and the new beam, at a Network Access Point (NAP);
- and
- assigning a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) allocation for the UT on the new beam, prior to an arrival of the UT on the new beam,
- wherein the user traffic traversing a satellite network remains uninterrupted during the beam switch and the NAP redirects user traffic for the UT via the old beam to the new beam, and a duration of the duplicating is less than 30 seconds.
A satellite network comprising:
- a User Terminal (UT) configured to perform a beam switch between an old beam and a new beam when the UT is disposed in an overlap area of the old beam and the new beam;
- a Network Access Point (NAP) to duplicate user data traffic destined for the UT in the old beam and the new beam;
- and
- a new gateway to manage the new beam and to assign a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) allocation for the UT on the new beam, prior to an arrival of the UT on the new beam,
- wherein the user traffic traversing the satellite network remains uninterrupted during the beam switch and the NAP redirects user traffic for the UT via the old beam to the new beam, the user traffic comprises Internet Protocol (IP) traffic comprising a flow, the flow is not disconnected due to the beam switch, and a protocol associated with the flow resolves the duplicating.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.