SBD Situational Awareness Messaging Under Low-Bandwidth Constraints
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Solution Overview
Problem
The Short Burst Data (SBD) satellite system has a very low bandwidth, limiting the amount of data that can be transmitted, which is inadequate for situational awareness applications that require frequent and accurate location updates, and using compression techniques like Winzip increases data size, exacerbating the issue.
Innovation Solution
A message handler system that receives and transmits positional information over SBD, employing data compression and combination techniques, such as reducing the bits for longitude and latitude to 22 and 8 bits respectively, and using non-linear altitude ranges, prioritizing the most recent position information, and sending updates only when assets have moved or at predetermined intervals, to optimize data transmission within the limited bandwidth.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If positional information is transmitted frequently for situational awareness, then location update accuracy is improved, but bandwidth consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential positional parameters (longitude, latitude, heading, altitude) needed for situational awareness, transmitting minimal data packets that contain only the critical location information rather than comprehensive asset data, thereby reducing bandwidth consumption while maintaining location update accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the precision parameters of positional data by using reduced-bit representations (e.g., 22 bits for longitude and latitude instead of standard GPS precision), adjusting the data format to transmit sufficient location information with fewer bits, thus improving the ratio of location accuracy to bandwidth usage
2Quantity of substance
If data compression utilities like Winzip are used, then data size is reduced, but transmission time increases due to compression overhead
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-formatting and pre-compressing positional data into compact binary structures before transmission, encoding longitude, latitude, heading, and altitude into fixed-bit fields in advance, so that the data is already optimized for transmission without requiring runtime compression, thus reducing transmission time while maintaining small data size
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses simple, lightweight data encoding schemes that are computationally inexpensive and require minimal processing time, such as fixed-bit integer representations and basic bitwise operations, replacing complex compression algorithms with faster, simpler data formatting that achieves sufficient compression for satellite bandwidth constraints
3Loss of information
If more positional parameters are included in each packet, then situational awareness quality is improved, but bandwidth efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by including only the most critical positional parameters (longitude, latitude, heading, altitude) in each transmission packet, omitting less essential information such as detailed asset metadata or historical position data, thereby achieving sufficient situational awareness quality with minimal bandwidth consumption
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments positional information into discrete, fixed-size data fields with specific bit allocations for each parameter, organizing longitude, latitude, heading, and altitude into separate structured elements that can be efficiently packed and transmitted, improving bandwidth efficiency while maintaining complete situational awareness data
Data Source
AI summary
A message handler for receiving and transmitting positional information over a short burst data (SBD) service is provided. The message handler comprises a receiver for receiving packets with positional information from one or more mobile devices over the SBD service, a memory for storing the positional information, a transmitter for sending situational awareness packets to the one or more mobile devices, computer readable medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon for causing the message handler to receive the packets from the one or more mobile devices, store the positional information from the packets in the memory, select positional information based on parameters for the situational awareness packets, the selected positional information comprising at least longitude and latitude, heading and altitude for at least one mobile device, compress and combine the selected information to send in the situational awareness packets based on rules and send the situational awareness packets to the one or more mobile devices.