A base station is provided. The base station includes a base band unit and one or more remote radio heads, a satellite-based content delivery network (S-CDN) device, and a local serving gateway (LS-GW). The base station unit and the one or more remote radio heads wirelessly communicate with a user equipment. The S-CDN device receives and caches content from a satellite-based content delivery network. The LS-GW is connected to the S-CDN device and the base band unit. The LS-GW receives a request for content from the user equipment, determines whether the content is already stored in the S-CDN device, and when the content is already stored in the S-CDN device, delivers the content to the user equipment from the S-CDN device.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, a satellite communication system includes a satellite constellation including a plurality of satellites in non-geosynchronous orbit (non-GEO), wherein at least some of the plurality of satellites travel in a first orbital path at a first inclination, and an end point terminal having an earth-based geographic location, the end point terminal having an antenna system defining a field of regard for communicating with the satellite constellation, wherein the field of regard is a limited field of regard, wherein the field of regard is tilted from a non-tilted position to a tilted position, and wherein the tilt angle of the tilted position is a function of the latitude of the geographic location.

Satellite provisioning of cell service for an in-vehicle telematics control unit (TCU) is presented. Thus, a truly carrier independent TCU is facilitated. A TCU may be provided with a cellular modem and two or more SIM cards, each associated with a cellular carrier that has approved the modem and their SIM card. The TCU may also be provided with connectivity to a satellite, such as, for example, via an SDARS antenna and processing module, that can receive and process SDARS audio and data signals. When a user desires to change from one of the cellular carriers to another, provisioning data for the new carrier's SIM, now already in the telematics system, may be (i) sent over the satellite, (ii) received at the satellite antenna, and (iii) passed to a telematics processor. The telematics processor, in turn, may (iv) deliver the provisioning data to the cell modem, which may then (v) program the appropriate SIM with the provisioning data, thus allowing cellular communications on the new carrier's network. The inventive functionality facilitates easily switching carriers as one crosses a border, or when a new vehicle is imported to a given country, and cellular service then or there available on one of the approved carriers is easily chosen by a user and turned on. The TCU may also include a Wi-Fi module, configured to receive provisioning instructions or data over a Wi-Fi network.

This application provides an example timing advance update method, an example terminal, and an example base station. One example method includes receiving, by a terminal, an updated timing advance TA value and a beam cell identity of a beam cell in which the terminal is located that are sent by a base station. The example method also includes obtaining, by the terminal, corresponding TA compensation information based on the beam cell identity. The example method further includes performing, by the terminal, TA compensation in a TA update period based on the updated TA value and the TA compensation information. The example method also includes sending, by the terminal, uplink data by using a TA value obtained after TA compensation is performed.

The present disclosure addresses unresolved problems of task scheduling by adding redundancy in a collection task schedule generated by a ground control station. Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a randomization based redundant collection task scheduling for mitigating occlusions in sensing by small satellite constellations. The randomization based redundant collection task scheduling algorithm receives as input a set of region of observations tessellated into sub-regions, and then collection opportunities for each sub-region is computed based on satellite tracks data. Further, a sub-set of collection opportunities is determined from all the possible collection tasks for each sub-region to further generate the collection task schedule for each of the region of observation. Number of collections opportunities is controlled by a decay function which holds number of redundant collections to a bound, thereby increasing chance of good collection without investing too much resource in redundancy to mitigate occlusions.

Satellite provisioning of cell service for an in-vehicle telematics control unit (TCU) is presented. Thus, a truly carrier independent TCU is facilitated. A TCU may be provided with a cellular modem and two or more SIM cards, each associated with a cellular carrier that has approved the modem and their SIM card. The TCU may also be provided with connectivity to a satellite, such as, for example, via an SDARS antenna and processing module, that can receive and process SDARS audio and data signals. When a user desires to change from one of the cellular carriers to another, provisioning data for the new carrier's SIM, now already in the telematics system, may be (i) sent over the satellite, (ii) received at the satellite antenna, and (iii) passed to a telematics processor. The telematics processor, in turn, may (iv) deliver the provisioning data to the cell modem, which may then (v) program the appropriate SIM with the provisioning data, thus allowing cellular communications on the new carrier's network. The inventive functionality facilitates easily switching carriers as one crosses a border, or when a new vehicle is imported to a given country, and cellular service then or there available on one of the approved carriers is easily chosen by a user and turned on. The TCU may also include a Wi-Fi module, configured to receive provisioning instructions or data over a Wi-Fi network.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a centralized network device change procedure. A method comprises in response to a distributed network device being to be disconnected with a centralized network device and connected with a further centralized network device, transmitting an interface resuming request from a distributed network device to the further centralized network device, the interface resuming request being used for resuming an inactivated interface between the further centralized network device and the distributed network device, the terminal device is served by the centralized network device via the distributed network device; and in response to receiving, from the further centralized network device, a resuming status message indicating the interface is successfully resumed, activating the inactivated interface to complete the resume procedure. In this way, when a gNB-DU, which is located at the satellite and moves along with the satellite, moves from the coverage of a gNB-CU to the coverage of a new gNB-CU, a terminal device, which is served by a gNB-CU via a gNB-DU, will keep the connection with the gNB-CU, such that the connectivity of the accessed terminal device will be maintained and meanwhile the signalling overhead for interface configuration will be saved.

A method and system facilitate communication between a constellation of satellites and a mobile platform-mounted mobile communicator. The method and system may include the use of a first antenna suited for operation using a first frequency band in a first geographic region and a second antenna suited for operation using either the first or a second frequency band in a second geographic region. The method and system may use a controller to determine which antenna to activate based on one or more of a geographic indicator or a signal indicator. The system used by the method to facilitate the communication may have one or more enclosures over the antennas and controller for mounting to a mobile platform.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, a satellite communication system includes a satellite constellation including a plurality of satellites in non-geosynchronous orbit (non-GEO), wherein at least some of the plurality of satellites travel in a first orbital path at a first inclination, and an end point terminal having an earth-based geographic location, the end point terminal having an antenna system defining a field of regard for communicating with the satellite constellation, wherein the field of regard is a limited field of regard, wherein the field of regard is tilted from a non-tilted position to a tilted position, and wherein the tilt angle of the tilted position is a function of the latitude of the geographic location.

A method and system facilitate communication between a constellation of satellites and a mobile platform-mounted mobile communicator. The method and system may include the use of a first antenna suited for operation using a first frequency band in a first geographic region and a second antenna suited for operation using either the first or a second frequency band in a second geographic region. The method and system may use a controller to determine which antenna to activate based on one or more of a geographic indicator or a signal indicator. The system used by the method to facilitate the communication may have one or more enclosures over the antennas and controller for mounting to a mobile platform.