An enhanced L-band Digital Aeronautical Communications System (LDACS) may include LDACS ground stations, and LDACS airborne stations configured to communicate with the LDACS ground stations. The enhanced LDACS may also include a network controller configured to operate a given LDACS ground station and LDACS airborne station to use a primary LDACS channel and at least one supplemental LDACS channel defining an aggregated bandwidth channel, with the primary LDACS channel changing at handover from one LDACS ground station to another LDACS ground station.

A multiple-access transceiver handles communications with mobile stations in environments that exceed mobile station design assumptions without necessarily requiring modifications to the mobile stations. One such environment is in Earth orbit. The multiple-access transceiver is adapted to close communications with mobile stations while exceeding mobile station design assumptions, such as greater distance, greater relative motion and/or other conditions commonly found where functionality of a terrestrial transceiver is to be performed by an orbital transceiver. The orbital transceiver might include a data parser that parses a frame data structure, a signal timing module that adjusts timing based on orbit to terrestrial propagation delays, frequency shifters and a programmable radio capable of communicating from the Earth orbit that uses a multiple-access protocol such that the communication is compatible with, or appears to the terrestrial mobile station to be, communication between a terrestrial cellular base station and the terrestrial mobile station.

A method performed on-board by a satellite for processing a signal received from a terminal during a current time interval, includes receiving, during the current time interval, a main signal containing a message from a terminal, each message having a priority level; sampling the main signal to obtain samples; storing the obtained samples into the satellite memory; first demodulating the messages corresponding to the current time interval contained in the samples stored in memory; when the satellite is in the range of a ground station, transmitting to the ground station the content of the memory. The first demodulating includes, for each message of the messages contained in the samples and by priority order: demodulating and decoding the message; forwarding, using direct link or inter-satellite-link, the demodulated message to a ground station; estimating the number of remaining non-demodulated messages in the samples stored in the memory.

This disclosure relates generally to wireless communications and, more particularly, to systems and methods for determining round trip time and layer 2 (e.g., data link) buffer size in non terrestrial networks. In one embodiment, a method performed by a communication node includes: sending a capability request message to a communication device, wherein the communication node communicates from a satellite in orbit; receiving capability information from the communication device in response to the capability request message; and determining a data link buffer size associated with communications between the communication node and the communication device based on the capability information.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer-readable media, for location management for satellite systems. In some implementations, a controller of a satellite network system receives location data from a user terminal and registers the user terminal in a mobility area with a core network. The controller updates a mapping between satellite beams and mobility areas as the satellite beams move along the ground with respect to the mobility areas, then uses the updated mapping to communicate with the user terminal using an appropriate satellite beam. In some implementations, a controller of a satellite network system determines a mapping of satellite beams to mobility areas, and broadcasts, for each of multiple satellite beams, a message indicating (i) a set of mobility areas that are at least partially covered by the satellite beam and (ii) an indication of boundaries of the mobility areas in the set of mobility areas.

A device may receive capacity information associated with a plurality of base stations, and may receive user equipment demands associated with the plurality of base stations. The device may receive, from a satellite, a satellite backhaul demand associated with the satellite, and may calculate excess backhaul capacities associated with the plurality of base stations, based on the user equipment demands and the capacity information. The device may identify a base station, of the plurality of base stations, to provide a satellite backhaul path for the satellite, based on the excess backhaul capacities and the satellite backhaul demand, and may provide, to the base station, a message instructing the base station to activate a satellite antenna associated with the base station. The device may provide, to the satellite, data identifying the base station, and may establish the satellite backhaul path for the satellite, via the base station.

An enhanced L-band Digital Aeronautical Communications System (LDACS) may include LDACS ground stations, and LDACS airborne stations. Each LDACS airborne station may be configured to communicate with the LDACS ground stations using at least one cellular network security feature. For example, the at least one cellular network security feature may include a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) security feature.

An Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) device may include a controller and a radio frequency (RF) transmitter coupled thereto and configured to transmit flight identification data, and transmit flight position data at a coarse accuracy and a fine accuracy. The RF transmitter may be configured to operate at a frequency within the L-band Digital Aeronautical Communications System (LDACS) frequency band. For example, the controller may be configured to encapsulate the flight identification data and flight position data within a message for an LDACS.

The technology relates to a Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) satellite communication system and corresponding method. The satellite communication system has, in one arrangement, a base station configured to communicate with standard compliant user equipment (UE) via a satellite having a field of view. The base station includes a plurality of base band units and a base station memory configured to store control information, downlink signal information and uplink signal information associated with a cell in the field of view. The system also includes a processing device configured to cause the satellite to generate a satellite beam in accordance with the control information, downlink signal information and uplink signal information stored in the base station memory.

Some implementations of the disclosure relate to dynamic switching of a satellite inroute data path between a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) method and a Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) method. In one implementation, a satellite terminal comprises one or more processors; and one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media configured with instructions executable by the one or more processors to cause the satellite terminal to perform operations comprising: communicating, using the satellite terminal, over an inroute TDM channel; determining, based on an ingress traffic rate to the satellite terminal or a determination that the satellite terminal has not received any traffic flows classified for communication using TDM, to switch communications from the inroute TDM channel to an inroute TDMA channel; and after determining to switch communications, switching, at the satellite terminal, from communicating over the inroute TDM channel to communicating over the inroute TDMA channel.