A method of switching from a first gateway within a plurality of first gateways to a second gateway in a network includes precaching configuration information on the second gateway, that is within the first gateways, prior to switch-over to the second gateway. The first gateway from which the second gateway is being switched is identified. The second gateway is configured in accordance with the configuration of the first gateway based on the precached configuration information prior to the switch-over to the second gateway. Data traffic from data applications using the network is replicated and sent to the first gateway and the second gateway. Bandwidths allocated to terminals in the network are frozen in association with the switch-over to the second gateway. The bandwidths allocated to the terminals in the network are unfrozen based at least in part on an indication of completion of the switch-over to the second gateway.

A method performed by a first network node (101) for enabling a second feeder link (132) to be established between a second network node (102) and an airborne or orbital communication node (110) in non-terrestrial communications network (100) to handle wireless devices (121) being served by the airborne or orbital communication node (110) is provided. The first network node (101) is handling the wireless devices (121) served by the airborne or orbital communication node (110) over a first feeder link (131) between the first network node (101) and the airborne or orbital communication node (110). The method comprises determining (701) that the wireless devices served by the airborne or orbital communication node (110) are to be handled by the second network node (102) over the second feeder link (132). Also, the method comprises initiating (702) the second feeder link (132) to be established between the second network node (102) and the airborne or orbital communication node (110). Further, a first network node (101) for enabling a second feeder link (132) to be established between a second network node (102) and an airborne or orbital communication node (110) in non-terrestrial communications network (100) to handle wireless devices (121) being served by the airborne or orbital communication node (110) is also provided. A second network node and a method therein, as well as, computer programs and carriers are further provided.

Aspects of the disclosure are related to wireless communication method that is applied to a terminal. The method can include sending communication capability information of the terminal to a base station, where the communication capability information can be used at least for indicating whether the terminal has a communication capability of communicating with a satellite.

A satellite communication system includes a satellite, satellite base station (eNodeB or gNodeB) and a user equipment (UE). The satellite provides a number of satellite beams, and each satellite beam includes multiple cells. The base station communicates with the UE via a satellite using a narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) waveform and an enhanced protocol. In particular, the base station and UE perform carrier aggregation by adding and/or deleting carriers in a cell, and the base station and UE perform a higher-order modulation and coding scheme (MCS) processing to support high data rates for user data transport.

Satellites provide communication between devices such as user terminals (UTs) and ground stations that are in turn connected to other networks, such as the Internet. Latency for signals to and from the satellite can introduce delays due at least in part to propagation time. The latency adversely interacts with data transfers that result in responses from the UT. Downstream data to the UT is processed to determine if a response is expected. Header data is associated with the downstream data that is sent to the satellite. A resource scheduler onboard the satellite uses the header data to provide a prospective grant to the UT to send the expected response. The UT receives the downstream data, response data such as an acknowledgement is generated, and the response data is sent to the satellite using the prospective grant. The system substantially reduces the latency associated with responsive traffic and improves overall throughput.

A method for entry into a satellite communication network includes at least one satellite, the communications of the satellite communication network being organized according to a beam-hopping mechanism wherein hop frames define antenna beam configurations of the at least one satellite, wherein resources of the hop frames are reserved for forming directional entry beams dedicated to entry or re-entry of user terminals into the satellite communication network, at least two of the directional entry beams having different directions of sight. A satellite, a user terminal and a communication network configured to implement the described method.

Described herein are systems, methods, media, and devices for generating a satellite program for contacting satellites. In some embodiments, data including one or more targets for accessing a satellite constellation is obtained. Based on the data, a set of representations may be generated and candidate satellite constellation access programs may be determined based on the set of representations. For each program, a first score may be computed for each target to obtain a first set of scores, and a second score may be computed for each first score of the first set of scores to obtain a second set of scores. A satellite constellation access program may be selected from the candidate satellite access programs based on the second set of second scores.

A system and method for reducing usage of satellite channelizers including dividing a frequency spectrum into sub-bands; providing a satellite channelizer for each of the sub-bands, where each of the sub-bands may include channels; multiplexing service channels into the channels of one of the sub-bands, where the service channels convey data for a plurality of MSSs. A system and method for obtaining high throughput on a satellite network. A system and method for providing a Fair Access Policy (FAP) in a 4G system.

Within a satellite communications system, a base station communicates with standard compliant user equipment (UE) via a satellite having a field of view. The base station has a processor that instructs the satellite to generate a wide beam signal covering a plurality of cells in the field of view, and detects an access request from a user equipment within the plurality of cells over the wide beam signal. The base station, comprising a processing device such as an eNodeB, then generates one or more network broadcast/access signals that is uplink to a satellite and broadcasted via one or more nominal beams generated by the satellite, covering all the inactive cells, one of the plurality of cells having the access request.

A method for acquiring a location of a terminal is performed by a core network element, and the method includes: initiating a positioning procedure to acquire the location of the terminal, in which the terminal performs satellite access via a base station. The initiating the positioning procedure to acquire the location of the terminal includes: sending first request information to a location management function. The first request information is configured to request first location information of the terminal, the first request information indicates a location request, and the location request includes at least one of: the first location information being location information verified by a network; or the first location information being location information obtained based on a reliable positioning method.