A radio communication system for transmitting data to a ground station includes plural stochastically distributed orbiting satellites with plural antennas traversing a portion of the earth's surface divided into zones. The ground station has a unique address identifying itself and the zone where it is located. A local area network associated with the ground node includes at least one satellite that stores the identity of a satellite antenna paired with a ground station antenna to form a radio link for transmitting data onboard the satellite to the ground station. Other satellites in the local area network store the ground node address and the identity of an antenna paired with an antenna in another satellite that also has stored the ground node address. A wide area network includes at least one satellite, each of which stores the identity of an antenna paired with an antenna of another satellite that has stored the ground node zone to form at least one inter-satellite radio link. If a satellite with data onboard is not in a local area network associated with the destination ground node or a wide area network, the satellite transmits the data toward the ground node zone.

A method of periodically attempting to access the HPLMN or an EHPLMN with higher priority in NTN systems with discontinuous coverage is proposed. A UE registered in VPLMN starts a timer T to periodically attempt to obtain service on its HPLMN or EHPLMN. When access stratum is deactivated due to discontinuous coverage in NTN, the UE does not stop the timer T, and postpone the periodic attempts to a later time, e.g., upon or after the UE activates the access stratum.

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.

Access, mobility management and regulatory services are supported for satellite access to a Fifth Generation (5G) core network. A coverage area, e.g., country, region, multiple countries, and international areas, are divided into fixed virtual cells having well defined geographic boundaries and fixed tracking areas. Information for the virtual cells and/or tracking areas and associated with one or more public land mobile networks (PLMNs) may be provided to a user equipment (UE). The UE may obtain its position, e.g., using a satellite positioning system, and determine the serving virtual cell or tracking area in which it is located. The UE may perform registration with a serving core network in a serving PLMN associated with the serving virtual cell or tracking area. Regulatory services, such as emergency (EM) calls, lawful interception (LI), wireless emergency alerts (WEA) may be provided based on the serving virtual cell or tracking area.

Access, mobility management and regulatory services are supported for satellite access to a Fifth Generation (5G) core network. A coverage area, e.g., country, region, multiple countries, and international areas, are divided into fixed virtual cells having well defined geographic boundaries and fixed tracking areas. Information for the virtual cells and/or tracking areas and associated with one or more public land mobile networks (PLMNs) may be provided to a user equipment (UE). The UE may obtain its position, e.g., using a satellite positioning system, and determine the serving virtual cell or tracking area in which it is located. The UE may perform registration with a serving core network in a serving PLMN associated with the serving virtual cell or tracking area. Regulatory services, such as emergency (EM) calls, lawful interception (LI), wireless emergency alerts (WEA) may be provided based on the serving virtual cell or tracking area.

A first communication apparatus obtains first ephemeris information of a second communication apparatus, where the first ephemeris information includes information about m parameters of n parameters in second ephemeris information, n is equal to 6, and m is a positive integer less than n, and the n parameters include a first location parameter, a first location parameter, and a first location parameter in first location information, and a first velocity parameter, a first velocity parameter, and a first velocity parameter in first velocity information. The first communication apparatus determines values of the n parameters in the second ephemeris information based on the first ephemeris information, where the values of the n parameters include values of the m parameters and values of remaining n-m parameters. The first communication apparatus communicates with the second communication apparatus based on the second ephemeris information.

In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, a method comprising: receiving from a network node, by a user equipment of a plurality of user equipment associated with more than one communication beam of a communication network, information comprising locations in time of the user equipment during paging occasions with at least one cell of the communication network associated over more than one communication beam, wherein the information identifies any provided order of the more than one communication beam covering the locations in time of the user equipment during the paging occasions; and based on the information, identifying by the user equipment at least one communication beam and timing of at least one paging occasion, of the paging occasions, for the user equipment.

Access, mobility management and regulatory services are supported for satellite access to a 5G core network. Radio cells supported by a satellite may be moving as the satellite moves and may undergo changes, e.g. when a satellite is transferred from one earth station to another. A base station may broadcast a remaining lifetime for a radio cell (e.g. in a system information block) which indicates to UEs how much longer the radio cell can be accessed before a change occurs. A radio cell may also indicate support for one or more fixed tracking areas (TAs) in coverage of the radio cell. A base station may broadcast a remaining lifetime for each TA to indicate to UEs how much longer a TA will be supported by the radio cell. UEs can use the indications to perform cell change or handover to other radio cells and/or other satellites.

Access, mobility management and regulatory services are supported for satellite access to a Fifth Generation (5G) core network (5GCN). A location of a UE may be obtained by a UE or by a base station and used to determine a country in which the UE is located. The UE can then select a serving PLMN in the country of the UE which is accessible from a radio cell supported by a satellite. The UE can register with the serving PLMN and receive information from the serving PLMN concerning fixed cells and fixed tracking areas supported by the serving PLMN. If the UE attempt to register with a PLMN not in the country of the UE, a serving base station can reject the attempt and indicate the country to the UE.

Systems, methods, and apparatus for user mobility in a system with time-varying user-satellite and satellite-ground Ethernet links are disclosed. In some embodiments, A method for user mobility in a satellite system comprises transmitting, by a user device, a first signal comprising internet protocol (IP) data packets encapsulated in an Ethernet frame to a satellite. The method further comprises transmitting, by the satellite, a second signal comprising the IP data packets encapsulated in the Ethernet frame to a ground modem of a ground terminal. Further, the method comprises transmitting, by the ground modem, a third signal comprising the IP data packets encapsulated in the Ethernet frame to a default gateway, which is associated with user device, of a customer ground location via a virtual Ethernet switch. The virtual Ethernet switch utilizes one of a layer two (L2) overlay or a wide area network (WAN) L2 virtual private network (VPN) implementation.