Cellular Core Network and Radio Access Network Infrastructure and Management in Space
AssigneeLynk Global, Inc.
InventorsTyghe Robert Speidel, Charles E. Miller
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cellular network management system authenticates user equipment (UE) mobile devices to a cellular network and might comprise authentication logic, stored on a first orbital base station, for authenticating UE devices to the cellular network using a protocol that appears to the UE to be a terrestrial network authentication protocol, a cache for storing UE device prior authorizations, wherein at least a portion of the cache is stored on a second orbital base station; and transmission logic for transferring the UE device prior authorizations from the first orbital base station to the second orbital base station.
Claims18
A cellular network management system, wherein a user equipment (UE) mobile device authenticates to a cellular network using a ground-based home subscriber server and the cellular network management system limits access to the cellular network for unauthenticated user devices, and wherein the UE communicates through the cellular network via a plurality of orbital base stations, the cellular network management system comprising:
- authentication logic, stored on a first orbital base station, for authenticating UE devices to the cellular network using a protocol that appears to the UE to be a terrestrial network authentication protocol;
- a cache for storing UE device prior authorizations, wherein at least a portion of the cache is stored on a second orbital base station;
- and
- transmission logic for transferring the UE device prior authorizations from the first orbital base station to the second orbital base station.
A method of managing cellular network connections between a user equipment (UE) mobile device and a plurality of orbital base stations in a cellular network, the method comprising:
- authenticating the UE to the cellular network using a protocol that appears to the UE to be a terrestrial network authentication protocol, wherein authenticating uses a first orbital base station of the plurality of orbital base stations, wherein the first orbital base station has a first satellite overpass time relative to the UE;
- storing, at the first orbital base station, an indication of a completed authentication of the UE;
- transmitting, from the first orbital base station to a second orbital base station, a representation of the indication of the completed authentication;
- upon communications between the UE and the second orbital base station using the terrestrial network authentication protocol, initiating an authentication between the UE and the second orbital base station, wherein the second orbital base station has a second satellite overpass time relative to the UE;
- and
- bypassing authentication using a ground-based home subscriber server by using, at the second orbital base station, the representation of the indication of the completed authentication to authenticate the UE for use of the cellular network.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.