Radio-frequency (RF) gateway redundancy schemes for satellite communication networks

A method of backing up radio-frequency (RF) gateways of a satellite communication system, the method comprising:

• designating a plurality of RF gateways as initial primary RF gateways for the satellite communication system, the initial primary RF gateways being in an active state to handle data communications;
• designating an additional RF gateway as an initial backup RF gateway for the satellite communication system, the initial primary RF gateways being in an idle state;
• detecting that a first initial primary RF gateway has a fault condition;
• performing a first switchover process to switch the first initial primary RF gateway to a current backup RF gateway and to switch the initial backup RF gateway to a first current primary RF gateway, the current backup RF gateway being in the idle state and the first current primary RF gateway being in the active state;
• detecting that a second initial primary RF gateway has the fault condition;
• and
• performing a second switchover process to switch the current backup RF gateway to a second current primary RF gateway and to switch the second initial primary RF gateway to the current backup RF gateway, the current backup RF gateway being in the idle state and the second current primary RF gateway being in the active state.

A method for hybrid rolling radio-frequency (RF) gateway backup in a satellite communication system, the method comprising:

• for a main network portion of the satellite communication system:
• configuring a plurality of RF gateways as primary RF gateways for the main network portion of the satellite communication system and configuring the primary RF gateways to be in an active state to handle data transmissions;
• configuring at least one RF gateway as backup RF gateways for the main network portion and configuring the backup RF gateways to be in an idle state;
• detecting that a first primary RF gateway for the main network portion has a fault condition;
• performing a switchover process to switch a first backup RF gateway to be one of the primary RF gateways of the main network portion and to switch the first primary RF gateway to be one of the backup RF gateways of the main network portion;
• and
• for a regionalized portion of the satellite communication system:
• detecting that a first primary regional RF gateway for a first region of the regionalized portion has a fault condition;
• performing a switchover process to switch a second backup RF gateway of the main network portion to be a primary RF gateway for the first region in place of the first primary regional RF gateway and placing the first regional primary RF gateway into an idle state;
• once the first regional primary RF gateway does not have the fault condition, performing a switchover process to switch the first regional primary RF gateway in as the primary RF gateway for the first region.