It is detected of an interference of a reverse link communication in a feeder link of a communication relay apparatus, which tends to occur when the number of movable aerial-floating type communication relay apparatuses increases in the same area. A communication system comprises a plurality of movable aerial-floating type communication relay apparatuses that respectively include a relay communication station of performing a service-link radio communication with a terminal apparatus, plural gateway stations that respectively perform a feeder-link radio communication with the plurality of the communication relay apparatuses, and a common baseband processing apparatus connected to the plural gateway stations. The baseband processing apparatus detects an interference of the reverse link communication due to an interference wave from a relay communication station of another communication relay apparatus, the interference wave interfering with a signal wave from the relay communication station of the communication relay apparatus connected to the gateway station, based on plural reception signals received by the plural gateway stations.

Methods and systems for calibrating the return and forward links of a satellite communication system are provided according to embodiments of the invention. The phase and/or amplitude variations caused by the return and forward links are calculated and/or estimated to aid in beamforming, such as ground-based beamforming. Calibration earth stations, distributed within one or more beam patterns, may be used to transmit calibration codes to the gateway to calibrate the return link. Return links variations may be estimated using a weighted minimum mean square algorithm at the gateway. Forward links may be calibrated with calibration codes transmitted from the gateway through a hybrid matrix to at least one calibration station. Forward calibration links may also calibrate for temperature-dependent signal variations such as diplexer variations at the satellite.

A method of operating a first non-terrestrial network part supporting a plurality of spot beams providing corresponding coverage areas in a wireless telecommunications network, the method comprising: communicating with a communications device in a first coverage area associated with a first spot beam of the first non-terrestrial network part: identifying a new coverage area for the communications device, the new coverage area corresponding to a coverage area of a second spot beam different from the first spot beam, and implementing a mobility procedure for the communications device; wherein, if the second spot beam is supported by the first non-terrestrial network part, the mobility procedure is a first mobility procedure and if the second spot beam is supported by a second non-terrestrial network part different from the first non-terrestrial network part the mobility procedure is a second mobility procedure different from the first mobility procedure.

Systems and methods are described for enabling flexible signal pathways within a satellite of a satellite communications system. For example, a pathway selection subsystem in a bent-pipe satellite enables a flexible arrangement of non-processed signal pathways that couple uplink antenna ports with downlink antenna ports via uplink and downlink pathway selectors. The pathway selectors can be dynamically reconfigured (e.g., on orbit), so that the configuration of the pathway selectors at one time can form one set of signal pathways between respective uplink and downlink antenna ports, and the configuration at another time can form a different set of signal pathways between respective uplink and downlink antenna ports. The pathway selection subsystem can have a simulcast mode which, when active, couples each of at least one of the uplink antenna ports with multiple of the user downlink antenna ports to form one or more simulcast signal pathways.

An active repeater device includes a primary sector and at least a secondary sector communicatively coupled to the primary sector receives or transmits a first beam of input RF signals having a first beam pattern from or to a base station, respectively. The primary sector includes an baseband signal processor and a first radio head (RH) unit. The secondary sector comprises a second RH unit. Beamforming coefficients are generated to convert the first beam pattern of the first beam of input RF signals to a second beam pattern based on a location of each of a plurality of user equipment (UEs). A second beam of output RF signals in the second beam pattern is transmitted from or received by, respectively, the secondary sector to or from, respectively, the plurality of UEs based on the generated beamforming coefficients and the received first beam of input RF signals.

An earth station transmitter device is arranged for generating a signal to be transmitted to a plurality of earth station receiver devices of a satellite communication system. The earth station transmitter device comprises a plurality of shapers, each arranged for shaping and encapsulating data traffic to a different subset of earth station receiver devices; obtaining for each subset a virtual carrier outputting at a virtual carrier symbol rate a plurality of virtual carrier baseband frames. A modulator includes a time slice selector arranged for receiving and storing the virtual carriers outputted by the plurality of shapers, for selecting a stored virtual carrier baseband frame from a list of allowable virtual carriers as next frame to be multiplexed on a single stream, and for assigning to the selected virtual carrier baseband frame, from a list of allowable time slice numbers.

An active repeater device includes a primary sector and at least a secondary sector communicatively coupled to the primary sector receives or transmits a first beam of input RF signals having a first beam pattern from or to a base station, respectively. The primary sector includes an baseband signal processor and a first radio head (RH) unit. The secondary sector comprises a second RH unit. The first beam pattern covers a first geographical area. Beamforming coefficients are generated to convert the first beam pattern of the first beam of input RF signals to a second beam pattern. A second beam of output RF signals in the second beam pattern is transmitted from or received by, respectively, the secondary sector to or from, respectively, a plurality of user equipment (UEs) based on the generated beamforming coefficients and the received first beam of input RF signals.

A method for operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, which includes a base station and a non-terrestrial network part, the non-terrestrial network part transmitting a plurality of spot beams to provide a wireless access interface for transmitting signals to and receiving signals representing data from a communications device within a coverage region formed by a first of the spot beams. The method comprises receiving assistance information from the communications device, identifying, based on the received assistance information, that a backup configuration should be updated to indicate one or more others of the spot beams, the one or more others of the spot beams being backups to the first spot beam in case of beam failure of the first spot beam, and transmitting a backup beam reconfiguration message to the communications device, the backup beam configuration message comprising an indication of the updated backup configuration.

Methods and systems are described for providing satellite beam handover based on predicted network conditions. In embodiments, a satellite communications system retrieves flight plan data for a plurality of aircraft being provided a network access service, identifies, for each aircraft respective candidate satellite beams of the plurality of satellite beams for providing the network access service, each candidate satellite beam having an associated service timeframe for providing the network access service, obtains, for each of the respective candidate satellite beams, a beam utilization score indicative of predicted beam utilization by the plurality of aircraft over the associated service timeframe, selects satellite beams for providing the network access service of each aircraft of the plurality of aircraft based at least in part on the beam utilization scores, and schedules handover of the network access service for the plurality of aircraft to the selected satellite beams.

Systems and methods for facilitating an inroute transmission of data are disclosed. A system may include a processor and a memory storing instructions, which when executed by the processor, may cause the processor to receive information pertaining to a bandwidth capacity of a communication channel for an inroute transmission of data from a terminal of a plurality of terminals. The processor may determine, based on the received information and using an asynchronous scrambled coded multiple access (ASCMA) technique, a bandwidth allocation for the inroute transmission of data. The inroute to transmission may be in a form of ASCMA transmission of one or more encapsulated group burst packets.