Viasat, Inc.

Comsat Corporation

Anil K Agarwal

Moorthy N Hariharan

Michael Foxworthy

Elizabeth F Connor

Daniel N Elmore

Gregory W Buhler

Udayan Narayan Borkar

Sampath V Kumar

James N Esserman

Kristi Ann Jaska

Erwin C Hudson

Clifford K Burdick

Remberto Martin

Dattakumar M Chitre

Charles Richard Thorne

Shekhar V Patankar

Mark J Miller

Girish Chandran

Jae Won Chung

Ashok K Rao

Thomas Inukai

Sreenivas Ramaswamy

John A Lunsford

Prabhakar Gowrisankaran

Steven P Rempe

Sathyanarayanan Narayanaswamy

Udayan N Bokar

Ankitkumar N Patel

Charles R Thorne

Erwin Hudson

Methods, systems, and devices for communications are described. One or more flows between a node and one or more other nodes in a communication network may be monitored over a time period. During the monitoring, it may be identified that, during a subset of the time period, communications over at least one of the flows were restricted by the communication network based on receiving at least one indicator of congestion for the at least one flow. A quantity of traffic communicated over the one or more flows during the subset of the time period may then be determined, and respective flow rates of the one or more flows may be obtained. The obtained flow rates may be used to calculate a data rate of one or more connections between the node and the one or more other nodes.

Passive measurement of communication flows

Embodiments provide techniques for providing return-link routing in a hybrid communications network that includes a number of different networks having different characteristics. User terminal routing systems (UTRSs) provide interfaces between local user networks and the multiple communications networks of the hybrid network. Each UTRS can include a routing table having stored mappings that are populated according to forward-link communications (implicitly or explicitly), each associating a respective one of a plurality of routing table entries with one of the communications networks. When a UTRS receives return-link data from its respective local user network, the received data indicates a destination node. The UTRS can determine which of the stored mappings corresponds to the destination node and can route the received return-link data over a selected one of the communications networks in accordance with the identified one of the mappings.

Return-link routing in a hybrid network

Embodiments provide high-throughput, hub-and-spoke satellite communications with geographically non-overlapping user beams and full frequency reuse. For example, a coverage area of a satellite is segmented into multiple candidate coverage zones, and an associated consumption demand is determined for each candidate coverage zone. Fixed spot beams are assigned to a subset of the candidate coverage zones according to highest associated consumption demands, such that each fixed spot beam corresponds to at least one candidate coverage zone to service an associated beam coverage area that is geographically non-overlapping with beam coverage areas of all other fixed spot beams, and each fixed spot beam is allocated full use of a same spectrum. One or more steerable beams selectively cover lower consumption demand zones.

High-throughput satellite with sparse fixed user beam coverage

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for allocating network capacity over a communication channel of a network. The systems and methods determine a transmission profile for each of a plurality of service flow types. The systems and methods then iteratively perform the following steps for allocating network capacity: selecting, for each service flow type, the network capacity allocation parameters in each service flow type's transmission profile associated with a current network capacity allocation cycle; determining amounts of data to transmit for each of the plurality of service flow types based at least in part on the selected network capacity allocation parameters; and transmitting, over the communication channel, the determined amounts for each of the plurality of service flow types for the current network capacity allocation cycle.

Methods and systems for multi-level network capacity allocation

Methods and systems for allocation of network capacity are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes, determining a transmission profile for each of a plurality of service flow types, each transmission profile defining at least three different network capacity allocation parameters for a set of at least three different ordered network capacity allocation cycles, for each of the at least three ordered network capacity allocation cycles: selecting, for each service flow type, the network capacity allocation parameters in each service flow types transmission profile associated with a current network capacity allocation cycle of the at least three ordered network capacity allocation cycles, determining amounts of data to transmit for each of the plurality of service flow types based, at least in part, on the selected network capacity allocation parameters for the current network capacity allocation cycle, and transmitting the determined amounts over a communication network.

Satellite communications systems, methods, and related devices are described. In one embodiment, a satellite communications system is configured to dynamically allocate bandwidth among different downlink beams. The satellite may receive and compile traffic measurements and terminal parameters. The satellite may be configured with different downlink beam coverage areas, and may dynamically allocate downlink bandwidth and particular frequency channels to different beam coverage areas based on the measurements and parameters. The satellite may also assign frequency channels and time slots based on such measurements and parameters.

Dynamic bandwidth resource allocation for satellite downlinks

Systems, methods, devices, and processors are described for quality of service (QoS) packet scheduling in satellite communications systems. A packet received at the QoS packet scheduler may be assigned a virtual departure time utilizing novel self-clocked fair queuing techniques. The virtual departure time for a packet assigned to a queue may depend on a different weight assigned to the queues. Queues may be treated as low latency queues in some cases and may be provided with committed information rates in other cases. Low latency queues may be assigned weights equal to infinity, or the reciprocal of the weight equal to zero. Queues with committed information rates may assign different weights to packets depending on whether the rate that packets are received exceeds the committed information rate. Packets may then be scheduled based on their virtual departure time order.

Quality of service packet scheduler design

A method of assembling a plurality of frames including cell/packet-formatted data according to a predetermined frame format for transmission in a communication signal in a wireless or satellite environment. The method begins by assembling a data payload for each frame having a first variable size, including at least one of a partial data cell/packet and a complete data cell/packet. Then, for each frame a block code having a second variable size is generated for use in error correction. Each frame is provided with a frame header which defines aspects of the frame. Finally, the data payload, the block code and the format header are combined to form a frame corresponding to the plurality of frames, the format header defining a first portion of the frame, the data payload defining a second portion of the frame and the block code defining a third portion of the frame.

Frame format and frame assembling/disassembling method for the frame format

Systems, methods, and devices are described for flow congestion management. A series of packets may be received at a routing or other device. A group of active flows may be identified from the received series of packets. A determination may be made that the measured rate associated with the group of active flows exceeds a blocking threshold. Flows to be blocked may be selected using a blocking criteria. Packets associated with the blocked flows may then be discarded, while packets of unblocked flows may be forwarded for distribution. The rate for the group may be monitored, and flows may be selected for unblocking using unblocking criteria.

Flow congestion management

Growing community of inventors

Gaithersburg, MD, United States of America

Anil K Agarwal