US 2026/0095244 A1Published application

High-availability communication link that supports terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks including for disaster-relief and emergency management services

AssigneeDell Products L.P.

InventorsMichael J. Healy, Tejinder Singh, Navjot Kaur Khaira

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Abstract

The technology described herein is directed towards a transcoder with bypass capabilities that can be used to couple non-terrestrial network satellites to user equipment (UEs), including by decoding and reencoding packet level data for Satcom interface satellites, while bypassing transcoder conversion for direct-to-device (D2D) satellites. Two uplink channels are active, one for Satcom conversion and another for D2D bypass, and similarly for two downlink channels. A high availability mode communicates common data on both channels, or a parallel mode communicates independent streams, one per channel. A metasurface redirects signals to and from the satellites to the transcoder device, with the device also coupled to the UE. For a Satcom satellite, the transcoder converts, at the packet level, satellite-originating signals to UE-compliant signals, and converts UE-originating signals to Satcom-compliant signals. For D2D communications, transcoder conversion is bypassed. AI-controlled cross-point switches map the uplink and downlink channels.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system, comprising:

a metasurface;
and
a device comprising a controller, and a cross-point switch controlled by the controller,
wherein the device obtains first terrestrial uplink communication signals, corresponding to a first uplink channel, from a user equipment configured for cellular telecommunications,
wherein the device obtains second terrestrial uplink communication signals, corresponding to a second uplink channel, from the user equipment, wherein the first uplink channel is different from the second uplink channel,
wherein, at a first time, the controller:
controls the cross-point switch to couple the first terrestrial uplink communication signals to a Layer-1 physical interface (L1-PHY) uplink transcoder path that converts the terrestrial uplink communication signals to first non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signals, and routes the non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signals for uplink transmission to the satellite via the metasurface, and
controls the cross-point switch to couple the second terrestrial uplink communication signals to an uplink bypass path that bypasses the L1-PHY uplink transcoder path and routes the second terrestrial uplink communication signals for uplink transmission to the satellite via the metasurface, and
wherein, at a second time, the controller:
controls the cross-point switch to couple the second terrestrial uplink communication signals to the Layer-1 physical interface (L1-PHY) uplink transcoder path that converts the second terrestrial uplink communication signals to second non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signals, and routes the second non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signals for uplink transmission to the satellite via the metasurface, and
controls the cross-point switch to couple the first terrestrial uplink communication signals to the uplink bypass path that bypasses the L1-PHY uplink transcoder path and routes the first terrestrial uplink communication signals for uplink transmission to the satellite via the metasurface.

8 more elements

A method, comprising:

obtaining, by a system comprising at least one processor from a user equipment configured for cellular communications, first uplink packet data corresponding to a first terrestrial uplink communication channel;
obtaining, by the system from the user equipment, second uplink packet data corresponding to a second terrestrial uplink communication channel, wherein the first non-terrestrial downlink communication channel comprises a first radio frequency band that is different from a second radio frequency band of the second non-terrestrial downlink communication channel;
and
selecting, using a trained model of the system, between cross-point switch states, the cross-point switch states comprising:
a first cross-point switch state that:
couples the first uplink packet data to a Layer-1 physical interface (L1-PHY) uplink transcoder path that converts the first uplink packet data to third uplink packet data for a non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signal, and routes the third uplink packet data via the non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signal for uplink transmission to the satellite via a metasurface, and
couples the second uplink packet data to an uplink bypass path that bypasses the L1-PHY uplink transcoder path and routes the second uplink packet data via the non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signal for uplink transmission to the satellite;
and
a second cross-point switch state that:
couples the second uplink packet data to the L1-PHY uplink transcoder path that converts the second uplink packet data to fourth uplink packet data for a non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signal, and routes the fourth uplink packet data via the non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signal for uplink transmission to the satellite via the metasurface, and
couples the first uplink packet data to the uplink bypass path that bypasses the L1-PHY uplink transcoder path and routes the first uplink packet data via the non-terrestrial uplink satellite communication signal for uplink transmission to the satellite.

8 more elements

A system, comprising:

a metasurface having a line-of-sight field of view to a satellite;
and
a Layer-1 physical interface (L1-PHY) transcoder device, the L1-PHY transcoder device comprising a cross-point switch, a trained selection model that controls the cross-point switch, a downlink transcoder path and a downlink bypass path, the L1-PHY transcoder device:
receiving first downlink data from the satellite, as redirected by the metasurface, on a first satellite downlink communication channel,
converting the first downlink data from the satellite to third downlink data for a user equipment configured for cellular communications, and
receiving second downlink data from the satellite, as redirected by the metasurface, on a second satellite downlink communication channel,
wherein, at a first time, the trained selection model controls the cross-point switch to couple the third downlink data for downlink transmission of the third downlink data to the user equipment via a first user equipment downlink communication channel, and to couple the second downlink data for the downlink transmission to the user equipment via a second user equipment downlink communication channel, and
wherein, at a second time, the trained selection model controls the cross-point switch to couple the third downlink data for downlink transmission of the third downlink data to the user equipment via the second user equipment downlink communication channel, and to couple the second downlink data for the downlink transmission to the user equipment via the first user equipment downlink communication channel.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.