A high throughput fractionated satellite (HTFS) system and method where the functional capabilities of a conventional monolithic spacecraft are distributed across many small or very small satellites and a central command and relay satellite, the satellites are separated and flight in carefully design formations that allows the creation of very large aperture or apertures in space drastically reducing cost and weight and enabling high throughput capabilities by spatially reuse spectrum.

A cellular type communications system for cellular telephone networks to operate, control and communicate with unmanned aerial vehicles and remote piloted vehicles, the system including a first near-ground region to communicate with devices near the ground, as well as one or more layers covering roughly the same areal extent as the ground region but which are separated from each other and also elevated above ground substantially, and within which an aerial vehicle may rely on communications using the cell-based communications network.

Methods and systems are described for providing end-to-end beamforming. For example, end-to-end beamforming systems include end-to-end relays and ground networks to provide communications to user terminals located in user beam coverage areas. The ground segment can include geographically distributed access nodes and a central processing system. Return uplink signals, transmitted from the user terminals, have multipath induced by a plurality of receive/transmit signal paths in the end to end relay and are relayed to the ground network. The ground network, using beamformers, recovers user data streams transmitted by the user terminals from return downlink signals. The ground network, using beamformers generates forward uplink signals from appropriately weighted combinations of user data streams that, after relay by the end-end-end relay, produce forward downlink signals that combine to form user beams.

A system includes a remote computer. The remote computer includes a processor and a memory. The memory stores instructions executable by the processor to receive location data of a plurality of satellite terminals, select, based on the received location data, for each of the plurality of satellite terminals, a respective satellite beam for providing satellite communications, and broadcast a message to the plurality of satellite terminals including data specifying respective selected satellite beams for each of the plurality of satellite terminals.

A network controller is configured to cause a network to implement a primary network configuration of a network and a secondary network configuration as a backup to the primary network configuration. The network controller may be configured to receive information from a plurality of nodes of a network and information related to the client data to be transmitted through the network. Based on the node information, the network controller is configured to determine available nodes and possible links in the network and then determine a topology of the network. The primary network configuration is determined based on the topology. The network controller then sends instructions to the plurality of nodes of the network to implement the primary network configuration and to switch to a secondary network configuration where a failure of the primary network configuration occurs, wherein the secondary network configuration implements mobile ad-hoc networking in the determined topology.

This application relates to the field of communication technologies, and discloses a communication method and a communication apparatus, to resolve a problem of a poor interference suppression effect caused by closing an edge beam of a satellite. The method includes: A first satellite sends a first message to a second satellite. The first message includes information about a frequency reuse scheme. The information about the frequency reuse scheme includes basic unit information. The basic unit information includes central point locations and frequency information of at least N−1 beams. Herein, N is a frequency reuse factor of the first satellite. At least N−1 different pieces of frequency information exist in the frequency information that is of the at least N−1 beams and that is included in the basic unit information. In addition, N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 3.

The present invention relates to satellite systems and more particularly, to the provision of a satellite system and method for communications applications, with global coverage. An optimal method of providing global broadband connectivity has been discovered which uses two different LEO constellations with inter-satellite links among the satellites in each constellation, and inter-satellite links between the constellations. The first constellation is deployed in a polar LEO orbit with a preferred inclination of 99.5 degrees and a preferred altitude of 1000 km. The second constellation is deployed in an inclined LEO orbit with a preferred inclination of 37.4 degrees and a preferred altitude of 1250 km.

Aspects of the disclosure describe methods and systems for transmitting data via a satellite to a ground node. In one exemplary aspect, a method comprises splitting, on a satellite, a data segment into a plurality of data chunks, wherein an amount of the data chunks equals a number of ground nodes that the data chunks will be transmitted to. For each respective data chunk, the method comprises determining whether the satellite has a stable connection with the respective ground node. When the satellite has the stable connection with the respective ground node, the method comprises transmitting, by the satellite, the respective data chunk to the respective ground node, and when the satellite does not have the stable connection with the respective ground node, the method comprises transmitting, by the satellite, the respective data chunk to a neighboring satellite for storage until the stable connection is established.

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.

Aspects of the disclosure describe methods and systems for transmitting data via a satellite to a ground node. In one exemplary aspect, a method comprises splitting, on a satellite, a data segment into a plurality of data chunks, wherein an amount of the data chunks equals a number of ground nodes that the data chunks will be transmitted to. For each respective data chunk, the method comprises determining whether the satellite has a stable connection with the respective ground node. When the satellite has the stable connection with the respective ground node, the method comprises transmitting, by the satellite, the respective data chunk to the respective ground node, and when the satellite does not have the stable connection with the respective ground node, the method comprises transmitting, by the satellite, the respective data chunk to a neighboring satellite for storage until the stable connection is established.