In one implementation, a system for space-based aircraft monitoring includes a ground segment, multiple aircraft monitoring payloads on board corresponding satellites, and a resource scheduling system. Individual payloads include antenna systems configured to provide multiple beams for receiving ADS-B messages and two or more receivers configured to process received ADS-B messages that are implemented, at least in part, by reconfigurable FPGAs. In addition, individual payloads are configured to initiate transmission of ADS-B messages processed by one or more of their receivers to the ground segment. Meanwhile, the ground segment is configured to receive such messages and to route them to one or more destinations for aircraft monitoring. The resource scheduling system is configured to control the antenna systems of individual payloads to dynamically adjust the beams for receiving ADS-B messages of the individual antenna systems.

A satellite communication system includes a first satellite in a geostationary orbit and a plurality of second satellites. Each of the second satellites is in a separate orbit with time-dependent projection on ground. The first satellite is adapted to communicate with one or more user terminals and to communicate with each of the plurality of second satellites via a respective inter-satellite communication link. Further, each of the second satellites is adapted to communicate with one or more feeder link stations. Also disclosed is a method of communicating in a satellite communication system.

A position measuring system includes: a connection destination candidate selecting unit which selects a connection destination candidate for each of a plurality of route coordinates on a route included in route information, on the basis of the distance between each of the plurality of route coordinates and reference stations included in a reference station list; and a connection destination information generating unit which determines a connection destination for which to acquire the correction information, on the basis of prescribed determining criteria, from among the connection destination candidates selected by the connection destination candidate selecting means, and generates and outputs connection destination information relating to the determined connection destination.

A base station for communication with a terminal station having a plurality of terminal station antennas. The base station has a plurality of directional antennas, each of the plurality of directional antennas in communication with satellites in view. The base station also has a processing device (e.g., eNodeB) to transmit each of the multiple base-station antenna signals via each of the plurality of directional antennas to satellites and/or the beams of the same satellite seen by the terminal station for retransmission to the plurality of terminal station antennas.

Systems and methods for reliable content delivery from a satellite to sub-edge devices are described. Content is delivered to a plurality of edge devices. Missing portions of the content are identified. One or more of the missing portions are selected, and the selected portions are recovered via a satellite network or a non-satellite network. The recovery is coordinated by a central cloud device based on one or more recovery factors.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for random access. The method which may be performed by a terminal device includes determining a random access occasion based at least in part on random access configuration information for a non-terrestrial network. The method further includes transmitting a preamble to a network node in the non-terrestrial network, according to the determined random access occasion.

A multi-user satellite system provides communication services to external satellites. This satellite system provides in-orbit access points that can be used by the external satellites to offload data instead on relying directly on ground stations. One approach to such communication is to use a set of interface satellites (“converter satellites”) that provide a gateway between a constellation of satellites that together provide communication services to one or more ground stations, but that do not necessarily have the communication capabilities to communicate with external satellites. In this way, the interface satellites can be put in compatible orbits with external satellites and provide communication gateways that can be used to offload data from the external satellites to ground stations. As external satellites change their communication methods, the interface satellites can be reconfigured or new compatible interface satellites can be launched, without having to modify the constellation of satellites.

A satellite constellation forming system (600) forms a satellite constellation having a plurality of orbital planes in each of which a plurality of satellites fly at the same average orbital altitude. A satellite constellation forming unit (11) forms a passage region for a space object to pass through before the space object passes through an orbital altitude of the satellite constellation from above the satellite constellation. After the space object has passed through the passage region, the satellite constellation forming unit (11) restores the satellite constellation to a state before the passage region is formed.

A satellite communication system that combines the benefits of Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite systems into an MEO-LEO satellite system. The MEO-LEO system includes an LEO constellation combined with a MEO constellation where the LEO constellation may provide global coverage with broad average capacity and may support ‘hot spot’ coverage where desired. The MEO constellation may provide unique advantages including backhaul to ground in remote areas, higher traffic density for key locations, and a secure global backhaul for key customers. Data may be routed over optical inter-satellite links using Software Defined Networking concepts to provide MEO-LEO (backhaul and ground access), LEO-LEO (upstream & downstream); and (3) MEO-MEO (crosslinks & downlinks). Further, implementations described herein include secure user terminal (UT) to UT IP routing in the constellation for direct UT to UT communication.

The orbital states (position and/or time) for a constellation of space vehicles is determined as follows. The space vehicles measure PNT data, including range data determined based on FSO links between the space vehicles. The PNT data is transmitted from the space vehicles to two or more PNT controllers, which are a subset of the space vehicles that calculate the orbital state data for the constellation. This is a semi-distributed calculation. There is not a single controller that performs the calculations for all of the space vehicles in the constellation, and it is also not the case that each space vehicle performs its own calculations. Rather, each PNT controller services a sub-constellation of the space vehicles and determines the orbital state data for the space vehicles in the sub-constellation. The calculated orbital state data is transmitted from the PNT controllers to the space vehicles in the corresponding sub-constellations.