Aircell LLC

Gogo LLC

Intel Corporation

Gogo Business Aviation LLC

Gte Telecommunication Services Incorporated

Harold Grant Saroka

Anand Chari

Joseph M Cruz

Daniel Bernard McKenna

Ivica Kostanic

Patrick Jay Walsh

Yong Liu

Tim Joyce

Kenneth Joseph Jochim

Dandan Liu

Anand K Varadachari

Vahid Tarokh

Joseph Alan Tobin

Stefan Scheinert

Daniel M Bender

Legohu Mogodi

William James Gordon

Edward L Didion

Harold E Horton

Terry S Parker

Richard J Crane

Anand K Chari

The present Broadband Link System supplements the existing Air-To-Ground Radio Frequency communications link with an additional, separate high speed Broadband Ground-To-Air Data Channel to provide additional data communication capacity for aircraft. This Broadband Ground-To-Air Data Channel is typically a uni-directional (Ground-To-Air) link directed via a focused beam to selected aircraft which are operational in the coverage area of the Broadband Ground-To-Air Data Channel. The routing of the various data transmissions on both the Air-To-Ground Radio Frequency communications link and the Broadband Ground-To-Air Data Channel are managed in a unified manner to maximize the utilization of the two transmission facilities.

System for providing high speed communications service in an airborne wireless cellular network

The Multi-Link Aircraft Cellular System makes use of multiple physically separated antennas mounted on the aircraft, as well as the use of additional optional signal isolation and optimization techniques to improve the call handling capacity of the Air-To-Ground cellular communications network. These additional techniques can include polarization domain and ground antenna pattern shaping (in azimuth, in elevation, or in both planes). Further, if code domain separation is added, dramatic increases in capacity are realized. Thus, the Air-To-Ground cellular communications network can increase its capacity on a per aircraft basis by sharing its traffic load among more than one cell or sector and by making use of multiple physically separated antennas mounted on the aircraft, as well as the use of additional optional signal isolation and optimization techniques.

Multi-link aircraft cellular system for simultaneous communication with multiple terrestrial cell sites

The present Spectrum Sharing System implements spectrum reuse between aircraft-based Air-To-Ground (ATG) communication systems and Geostationary Satellite Service systems. This is accomplished by managing the radio frequency transmissions in the volume of space in which the aircraft operates, with interference between the Spectrum Sharing System and the Geostationary Satellite Service system being reduced by implementing reversed uplink and downlink radio frequency paths in the common spectrum. The Spectrum Sharing System also avoids interfering with Geostationary Satellite Services' earth stations which are pointed towards the satellites' orbital arc by relying upon a combination of the earth stations' highly directive antenna patterns and the Spectrum Sharing System ground station antenna pattern, and to avoid interfering with satellites in their orbital arc by assuring that power levels radiated in that direction by the Spectrum Sharing System ground stations are below the level that would create interference.

Spectrum sharing between an aircraft-based air-to-ground communication system and existing geostationary satellite services

Air-to-ground cellular communication network terrestrial base station having multi-dimensional sectors with alternating radio frequency polarizations

System for managing the multiple air-to-ground communications links originating from each aircraft in an air-to-ground cellular communication network

The present non-terrestrial feature transparency system spoofs the Air-to-Ground Network and the ground-based cellular communication network into thinking that the wireless subscriber devices have no special considerations associated with their operation, even though the wireless subscriber devices are located on an aircraft in flight. This architecture requires that the non-terrestrial feature transparency system on board the aircraft replicate the full functionality of a given wireless subscriber device, that has a certain predetermined feature set from a ground-based wireless service provider, at another wireless subscriber device located within the aircraft. This mirroring of wireless subscriber device attributes enables a localized cell for in-cabin communication yet retains the same wireless subscriber device attributes for the air-to-ground link. The Air-to-Ground Network transmits both the subscriber data (comprising voice and/or other data) as well as feature set data between the Aircraft in-Cabin Network and the ground-based cellular communication network to thereby enable the wireless subscriber devices that are located in the aircraft to receive consistent wireless communication services in both the terrestrial (ground-based) and non-terrestrial regions.

System for integrating an airborne wireless cellular network with terrestrial wireless cellular networks and the public switched telephone network

The handoff management system maximizes the communications capacity available from terrestrial air-to-ground cellular networks, while also integrating communications capabilities from satellite air-to-ground cellular networks and terrestrial cellular communications networks. The communications capacity is maximized by dynamically allocating communications from the aircraft over multiple communications channels to multiple cells of the terrestrial air-to-ground cellular network, and to satellite air-to-ground cellular networks and terrestrial mobile networks. This approach effectively provides an increase in the call handling capacity available to any aircraft and permits a gradual transition of communications from one cell to the next cell, rather than requiring an abrupt handover of all traffic from the aircraft from one cell to the next cell.

System for managing call handoffs between an aircraft and multiple cell sites

A private base station (PBS) configured to connect to the Internet and establish a small area of wireless coverage includes an exclusivity database allowing registered mobile phones to use services within the cell and not allowing use of the services by unregistered mobile phones.

Private base station with exclusivity

The air-to-ground cellular network for deck-to-deck call coverage provides call coverage to customers who are located in aircraft that are flying within the arrival/departure airspace of an airport by trifurcating the spatial coverage regions or volumes of space to solve the problems of inter-network interference while yielding air-to-ground cellular network coverage at any altitude. Three types of cells are considered: an Outer Cell, an Inner Cell and an Airport Cell. The Outer Cell is a macro cell covering a large volume of space and is one of many cells in the composite air-to-ground cellular network. The Inner Cell is created within an Outer Cell and has at its center an airport. The Airport Cell is a part of the Terrestrial Cellular Network (TCN), created by the present terrestrial cellular operators or service providers.

Air-to-ground cellular network for deck-to-deck call coverage

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Ashburn, VA, United States of America

Harold Grant Saroka