Spot beam hopping packet scheduler system in satellite communication

A satellite system having an apparatus for spot beam hopping packet scheduling, said apparatus receiving downlink cell ID and burst memory pointers from a bust assembly and congestion controller, said apparatus providing burst Information to an antenna controller and modulators, said satellite system comprising:

• a ground station;
• a satellite in orbit and in communication with said ground station, said satellite having an apparatus for spot beam hopping packet scheduling comprising:
• a downlink queue located in said satellite and coupled to said burst assembly and congestion controller;
• said downlink queue receiving and storing said downlink cell ID and burst memory pointers;
• a cache located in said satellite and coupled to said downlink queue, said cache receiving and storing said downlink cell ID and burst memory pointers from said downlink queue;
• a downlink search controller located in said satellite and coupled to said downlink queue and said cache, said downlink queue search controller having control logic operative to search said downlink queue for packet bursts, and fill any empty cache slots with packet bursts from said downlink queue;
• and
• a cache search controller located in said satellite and coupled to said cache, said cache search controller having control logic operative to select a seed packet form said cache in statistically weighted order, select compatible packets from said cache with statistically weighted order and assign packet bursts to spot beams.

A method of spot beam hopping packet scheduling comprising the steps of:

• receiving downlink cell ID and burst memory pointers;
• storing said downlink cell ID and burst memory pointers in a downlink queue;
• transferring said downlink cell ID and burst memory pointers to a cache;
• preserving FIFO order for all bursts for a given Cell ID;
• selecting starting point for seed packet burst search in said cache;
• searching said cache for seed packet burst in pre-configured search order, search range and statistical weighting;
• searching said cache for compatible packet bursts in pre-configured search order, search range and statistical weighting;
• searching said downlink queue for packet bursts;
• and
• filling any empty cache memory with packet bursts from said downlink queue;
• transferring said downlink cell ID and burst memory pointers stored in said cache to a plurality of pointer output registers;
• and
• providing packet burst information to an antenna controller and packet burst content to a plurality of modulators for setting spot beam coordinates.