The Boeing Company

Teledesic LLC

Janet L King

Mark Alan Sturza

Kenneth C Grzemski

Richard C Deininger

Thomas L Hayden

David S Parkman

Christopher John McLain

Anthony D Monk

Paulus J Martens

Jeffrey D Miller

Implementations are described that use a control center to maintain a list of registered mobile platforms that are pre-authorized to make use of the satellite-based transponder to transmit and receive data content to and from the base transceiver. The control center may cause the base transceiver to transmit at least one polling message, the polling message carries information addressed to a specific aggregate group of the registered mobile platforms and includes a return channel which may be used by a mobile platform to communicate with the base transceiver. In one implementation, the control center protects the system from exceeding power spectral density (PSD) statistical limits by using the mobile platform in the group that has a greatest power spectral density signal as the PSD that the aggregate group will generate.

Aggregate batch polling method for return link communications between a platform and a base station

A system and methods for aligning an elliptical beam of an antenna to a line-of-sight from the antenna to a remote receiver are disclosed. The methods offset the antenna from an initial pointing direction in an antenna pointing coordinate system. Coordinates of the pointing offsets are determined in the E-plane and H-plane of an antenna beam coordinate system. The method then converts the coordinates of the pointing offsets from the antenna beam coordinate system into coordinates of offset points each located in the antenna pointing coordinate system according to the polarization angle of the E-plane and the H-plane, and performs a tracking algorithm using relative signal strength measurement data at the initial pointing directions and at the coordinates of the offset points. The true location of the center/peak of the elliptical beam is calculated in azimuth/elevation planes of the antenna pointing coordinate system.

Alignment of an elliptical beam of an antenna

A technique for sharing radio frequency spectrum between multiple satellite communication systems. A first and a second satellite communication system each contain a plurality of satellites in a plurality of non-geostationary (non-GSO) Earth orbits. Each of the plurality of non-GSOs has a predefined orbital plane. Within each orbital plane, satellites of the first and second satellite communication systems are alternating, such that each orbital plane contains satellites from each of the satellite systems. In this manner, it is possible to achieve satisfactory discrimination between satellites and Earth-based stations. The Earth-based station of each communication system will communicate with the closest satellite of its respective communication system. In an alternative technique that is particularly useful when an Earth-based station in the first communication system is able to communicate with more than one satellite, a satellite is selected based on the topocentric separation of the satellite from satellites in the second system. The system can also combine alternating satellites within an orbital plane with alternating orbital planes with satellites of each respective communication system.

Technique for sharing radio frequency spectrum in multiple satellite

A technique for sharing radio frequency spectrum in a multiple communication satellite system with a plurality of satellites in each of a plurality of non-geostationary (non-GSO) Earth orbits. A first satellite communication system uses a plurality of predefined non-GSO Earth orbits and a second satellite communication system uses a plurality of predefined orbits that are interleaved with the orbital planes of the first satellite communication system. In this manner, it is possible to achieve satisfactory discrimination between satellites and Earth-based stations. With near polar orbits, the topocentric separation between satellites decreases as the latitude of the Earth-based stations increases due to the convergence of orbital planes near the poles. To compensate for the decreased topocentric separation, the system utilizes one or more mitigation techniques to select one of a plurality of possible satellites to communicate with the Earth-based station in order to effectively increase topocentric separation.

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Janet L King