Method and apparatus for handling communications between spacecraft operating in an orbital environment and terrestrial telecommunications devices that use terrestrial base station communications

A multiple-access base station having one or more transceiver that handles communication with a plurality of terrestrial mobile stations, wherein a terrestrial mobile station is configured to expect base station communications with a terrestrial cellular base station that is (1) within a limited distance from the terrestrial mobile station and/or (2) moving less than a limited velocity relative to the terrestrial mobile station, the multiple-access base station comprising:

• a data parser that parses data received by the multiple-access base station according to a frame structure, wherein the frame structure defines which timeslots are allocated to which of the plurality of terrestrial mobile stations, and according to a multiple-access protocol in which the terrestrial mobile station expects to receive signals at a specified frequency and to transmit signals at a specified frequency;
• a Doppler shift calculator that determines, for each terrestrial mobile station of the plurality of terrestrial mobile stations, its Doppler shift due to velocity of it relative to the multiple-access base station;
• a channel assignment module that assigns each of the plurality of terrestrial mobile stations to channel blocks in a plurality of channel blocks, wherein each a channel block has a terrestrial frequency and a Doppler frequency offset;
• a signal modulator that modulates signals to the terrestrial mobile station at the terrestrial frequency with the Doppler frequency offset, wherein the Doppler frequency offset at least approximately corresponds with an expected Doppler shift in signals transmitted to the terrestrial mobile station due to relative movement of the multiple-access base station and the terrestrial mobile station so that the terrestrial mobile station receives the signal at the terrestrial frequency;
• and
• a programmable radio capable of receiving a communication from the terrestrial mobile station using the multiple-access protocol and taking into account the Doppler frequency offset of the terrestrial mobile station, such that the communication is compatible with, or appears to the terrestrial mobile station to be, communication between a terrestrial cellular base station and the terrestrial mobile station, notwithstanding that the velocity of the terrestrial mobile station relative to the multiple-access base station exceeds the limited velocity.

A multiple-access base station having one or more transceiver that handles communication with a plurality of terrestrial mobile stations, wherein a terrestrial mobile station is configured to expect base station communications with a terrestrial cellular base station that is (1) within a limited distance from the terrestrial mobile station and/or (2) moving less than a limited velocity relative to the terrestrial mobile station, the multiple-access base station comprising:

• a data parser that parses data received by the multiple-access base station according to a frame structure, wherein the frame structure defines which timeslots are allocated to which of the plurality of terrestrial mobile stations, wherein the frame structure comprises a plurality of slots each having a zero or nonzero timeslot synchronization offset that provides for variable transmission delays that are due to a distance from the multiple-access base station to the plurality of terrestrial mobile stations and further according to a multiple-access protocol in which the terrestrial mobile station transmits at a expects to receive signals at a specified frequency and to transmit signals at a terrestrial frequency and is received with a Doppler frequency offset, and wherein the multiple-access protocol specifies channel blocks in a plurality of channel blocks wherein each a channel block has a designated terrestrial frequency and a designated timeslot;
• a signal timing module that determines a signal timing adjustment relative to the frame structure for a transmitted signal to the terrestrial mobile station based on a base-to-mobile distance between the multiple-access base station and the terrestrial mobile station where the base-to-mobile distance exceeds the limited distance, wherein each channel block is assigned a designated signal timing adjustment;
• a Doppler shift calculator that determines, for each terrestrial mobile station of the plurality of terrestrial mobile stations, its Doppler shift due to velocity of it relative to the multiple-access base station and each channel block is assigned a designated Doppler frequency offset;
• a dynamic channel allocator that allocates each of the plurality of terrestrial mobile stations to a designated channel block in the plurality of channel blocks based on its designated signal timing adjustment and its designated Doppler frequency offset, with a number of channels in the designated channel block corresponding to a number of the plurality of terrestrial mobile stations that have, or are expected to have, a designated signal timing adjustment and designated Doppler frequency offset;
• a signal modulator that modulates signals to the terrestrial mobile station at the terrestrial frequency with the Doppler frequency offset, wherein the Doppler frequency offset at least approximately corresponds with an expected Doppler shift in signals transmitted to the terrestrial mobile station due to relative movement of the multiple-access base station and the terrestrial mobile station so that the terrestrial mobile station receives the signal at the terrestrial frequency;
• and
• a programmable radio capable of receiving a communication from the terrestrial mobile station using the multiple-access protocol and taking into account the Doppler frequency offset of the terrestrial mobile station, such that the communication is compatible with, or appears to the terrestrial mobile station to be, communication between a terrestrial cellular base station and the terrestrial mobile station, notwithstanding that the base-to-mobile distance exceeds the limited distance and notwithstanding that the velocity of the terrestrial mobile station relative to the multiple-access base station exceeds the limited velocity.