Characterizing satellite beams via passive measurement of terrestrial traffic

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processing system including at least one processor, cause the processing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:

• sending, to a satellite of a non-terrestrial network, a first instruction that instructs the satellite to lock into a radio frequency test band and channel as the satellite is passing over a testing area and to enter a co-channel receive mode;
• sending, to a user endpoint device that is physically located in the testing area, a second instruction that instructs the user endpoint device to lock into the radio frequency test band and channel and to initiate a continuous upload data stream to a base station of a terrestrial network while locked into the radio frequency test band and channel;
• determining a measurement of an in-phase/quadrature component of the continuous upload data stream observed by the satellite while the satellite was in the co-channel receive mode;
• determining a measurement of the in-phase/quadrature component of the continuous upload data stream observed by the base station;
• correlating the in-phase/quadrature component observed by the satellite with the in-phase/quadrature component observed by the base station;
• and
• calculating an estimated link loss of the non-terrestrial network and a change in a gain of an antenna of the satellite based on the correlating.

A device comprising:

• a processing system including at least one processor;
• and
• a computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
• sending, to a satellite of a non-terrestrial network, a first instruction that instructs the satellite to lock into a radio frequency test band and channel as the satellite is passing over a testing area and to enter a co-channel receive mode;
• sending, to a user endpoint device that is physically located in the testing area, a second instruction that instructs the user endpoint device to lock into the radio frequency test band and channel and to initiate a continuous upload data stream to a base station of a terrestrial network while locked into the radio frequency test band and channel;
• determining a measurement of an in-phase/quadrature component of the continuous upload data stream observed by the satellite while the satellite was in the co-channel receive mode;
• determining a measurement of the in-phase/quadrature component of the continuous upload data stream observed by the base station;
• correlating the in-phase/quadrature component observed by the satellite with the in-phase/quadrature component observed by the base station;
• and
• calculating an estimated link loss and a change in a gain of an antenna of the satellite of the non-terrestrial network based on the correlating.