A system for network agnostic satellite communications includes an antenna configured to receive at least one antenna receive beam including multiple receive carriers multiplexed in at least one of frequency or time. The system further includes a signal processor configured to receive the multiple receive carriers and to extract data from at least one receive carrier of the multiple receive carriers. The system further includes an input device configured to receive at least one desirable communication parameter. The system further includes a control processor designed to determine actual parameters corresponding to the multiple receive carriers of the at least one antenna receive beam. The control processor is further designed to select an optimal receive carrier by comparing the at least one desirable communication parameter to the actual parameters. The control processor is further designed to establish a current communication link with the optimal receive carrier.

A triple use satellite system includes a VSAT population including a VSAT, and a satellite including a broadcast beam for a broadcast service and spot beams for a broadband service, where each of the spot beams provides broadband service to VSATs in separate coverage areas in a geographic region and the broadcast beam provides a broadcast service to the VSAT population in the geographic region.

A relay side receiving unit (931) receives a relay signal (99), an analog relay unit (932) outputs by analog processing the relay signal (99) whose frequency bandwidth is controlled, and a digital relay unit (933) outputs by digital processing the relay signal (99) whose frequency bandwidth is controlled. A relay side transmitting unit (934) transmits the relay signal (99) output by the analog relay unit (932), the digital relay unit (933). A relay side control unit (935) controls the analog relay unit (932), the digital relay unit (933) in accordance with an analog relay unit control signal (941A), a digital relay unit control signal (941D) indicating a frequency band of the relay signal (99).

A satellite communication system between a source and a destination over multiple satellite communications paths including first identifying the link performance established in multiple spectrums, performing a link comparison among the multiple spectrums (for example C-, Ku-, or Ka-Band) in order to determine a spectrum link that provides the highest throughput within an acceptable reliability criteria, and switching among the multiple spectrum links to provide that determined spectrum link between the source and the destination.

A communications terminal comprises data interface, a transport selection processor and a plurality of communications modems. The data interface receives input data from application sessions for transmission over a data communications network. Each of the application sessions imposes respective transmission requirements for transmission of the data over the data communications network. Each of the communications modems transmits the input data over the data communications network via a respective transmission platform, wherein each transmission platform exhibits respective transmission characteristics based on a transmission technology of the transmission platform. The modems are configured to transmit the input data simultaneously. For each of the application sessions, the transport selection processor selects a one of the modems, for transmission of the input data of the respective application session over the data communications network, based on the respective transmission requirements of the application session and the transmission characteristics of the respective transport platform.

Satellite communication methods and payloads are described. An imbalance in uplink and downlink availability may be mitigated through digitizing uplink spectrum, extracting guard band channels, and grouping the guard band channels to create a composite channel. The composite channel is converted to analog and RF up-converted, amplified, and multiplexed with other downlink analog channels before being transmitted to Earth. The guard bands may be from the same band of spectrum or different bands of spectrum, such as C band, Ka band, Ku band, etc. A satellite payload is described with dual output multiplexers having partially overlapping channels and a dual feed configuration. In one downlink implementation, unused regional band spectrum may be dynamically allocated to a spot beam. In one uplink implementation, regional band spectrum may be shared by a spot beam using spatial separation of the regional uplink location from the spot beam coverage area and digital cancellation techniques.

Systems and methods for adapting a timer(s) for a satellite-based radio access network are disclosed. Embodiments of a method performed by a wireless device and corresponding embodiments of a wireless device are disclosed. In some embodiments, a method performed by a wireless device comprises obtaining a value to be used to offset, extend, and/or scale one or more timers related to the satellite-based radio access network relative to values for non-satellite-based radio access networks. The method further comprises utilizing the value to offset a start of one or more timers, extend one or more timers, and/or scale one or more timers and performing one or more actions based on the one or more offset timers, the one or more extended timers, and/or the one or more scaled timers. Embodiments of a method performed by a base station and corresponding embodiments of a base station are also disclosed.

A high capacity satellite communications system including a satellite with a beam for a forward downlink focused on a geographic area for which disproportionately higher capacity is desired, a hub located in a geographic area for which disproportionately lower capacity is desired, compared to the location of a VSAT, and the VSAT located in area where a beam for a forward downlink received by the VSAT from the satellite does not overlap with a beam for a return downlink received by the hub from a satellite.

The disclosure provides for the flexible assignment of user beams to gateway beams in digital payload satellite systems. A virtual beama set of data values associating a physical user satellite beam with a Gateway Earth Station (GW) and used by the GW to service the physical user satellite beam, may be created or defined each time a physical user satellite beam is assigned to a GW. For one physical user beam, a plurality of virtual beams may be created, where each virtual beam corresponds to a GW. The virtual beams may be used to provide for the flexible assignment of user beams to gateway beams in a variety of applications such as GW expansion, physical user beam reassignment from one GW to another GW, diversity operation of terminals, and GW redundancy.

Systems and methods disclosed herein provide techniques for reducing quantization errors and side lobe levels in phased array antennas. The states of a quantized phase shifter of a phased array antenna may be dithered to achieve a time-averaged value that reduces quantization errors. By rapidly switching between the different states of the quantized phase shifter, a time-average value close to a desired phase state may be achieved with a low resolution phase shifter.