System and method of separately coding the header and payload of a data packet for use in satellite data communication

Abstract

A data communication system for a constellation of satellites (,, 13,, . . . ) that employ Earth-fixed cellular beam management technology is disclosed. The data to be communicated is formed into data packets by a transmitting ground terminal (,). Each data packet includes a header (,) with control information and a payload (,) of data to be communicated. The information contained in the header is used to route the data packets through the satellite constellation to the appropriate intended satellite or to a downlink satellite (,). The header and payload databits are outer forward error correction (FEC) encoded (,), optionally interleaved separately (,), and inner error correction encoded by inner FEC encoders (,). After receipt by an uplink satellite (,), processing of the header is accomplished to recover the header of the original signal. That information may then be used to identify and separate the payload into payload intended for the receiving satellite and payload not intended for the receiving satellite. If receiving satellite payload codewords are identified, the corresponding data is processed and used by the satellite. In one embodiment, a hard decision (,) is applied to the payload data packets that are not intended for use by the receiving satellite. In another embodiment, a hard decision is applied to all payload data. The information contained in the header is then used to route the data packets through the satellite constellation to the appropriate intended satellite or to a downlink satellite (,).