Satellite System Interstitial Gateway Beams Capacity
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Non-geostationary satellite systems face challenges in maintaining continuous communications due to the need for hand-offs between satellites and beams, limiting data throughput and capacity, especially in high-traffic regions.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of Interstitial Gateway Beams, Channel Stacking, and Capacity Folding techniques, which involve adding an interstitial SNP to utilize unused gateway antennas, stacking additional channels, and folding excess bandwidth from increased satellite planes to enhance data capacity and coverage area.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If non-geostationary satellites are used to reduce propagation loss and delay, then communications quality for interactive services is improved, but continuous communications are disrupted due to hand-off requirements between satellites and beams
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements interstitial gateway beams that extend the coverage area of gateway antennas, ensuring continuous communication coverage as satellites move through the constellation. This allows seamless hand-off between satellites without interrupting the useful communication action, maintaining both reliability and productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an additional spatial dimension by deploying interstitial SNPs at strategic locations between primary SNPs. This creates overlapping coverage zones that allow smooth transitions between satellites, resolving the contradiction between movement-based hand-offs and communication continuity.
2Productivity
If bandwidth is increased to improve data throughput, then communications capacity is enhanced, but system complexity increases due to additional SNPs and channel management
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway antennas serve multiple functions: primary SNP communication and interstitial gateway beam transmission. This multi-functionality allows the system to increase capacity through existing hardware rather than adding dedicated new components, improving throughput while limiting complexity growth.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic channel allocation and stacking, where channels are flexibly assigned and combined based on real-time satellite positions and traffic demands. This dynamic approach optimizes throughput while avoiding the complexity of static, over-provisioned systems.
3Area of stationary object
If the number of satellites per plane is increased to improve coverage, then coverage area is enhanced, but bandwidth per satellite is reduced due to beam overlap
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines channels from multiple satellites through channel stacking at the gateway level. This merging allows the system to aggregate bandwidth resources across the constellation, compensating for the reduction in individual satellite bandwidth while maintaining or expanding overall coverage area.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the constellation into multiple planes with satellites positioned to create controlled overlap zones. This segmentation allows efficient use of bandwidth in high-traffic areas while maintaining broad coverage, resolving the trade-off between area and per-satellite resources.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3A~3C
AI summary
A satellite system having increased communications capacity and methods for increasing the capacity of satellite systems are disclosed.