Patent ID: 11876595
Assignee: SMARTSKY NETWORKS LLC
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 17:
18. A network configured to provide high speed wirelessly transmitted data communications to an in-flight aircraft, the network comprising:
a plurality of ground transmission stations, the ground transmission stations being located such that at least some of the ground transmission stations are within overlapping communications range of respective other ones of the ground transmission stations, the ground transmission stations being configured to communicate with a receiver station located on board the in-flight aircraft to provide a high speed data communications link to the in-flight aircraft; and
a software defined radio at each of the ground transmission stations, the software defined radio being operably coupled to an antenna assembly of each respective one of the ground transmission stations to control the antenna assembly, the software defined radio being configured to enable processing of signals sent or received at the antenna assembly utilizing Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM),
wherein the high speed data communications link is maintained while the in-flight aircraft is within a coverage area provided by one of the plurality of ground transmission stations and as the in-flight aircraft transitions from the coverage area provided by the one of the plurality of ground transmission stations to a coverage area provided by another of the plurality of ground transmission stations, and
wherein the network is configured to, for determining which of the ground transmission stations is to establish the high speed data communications link with the receiver station, favor a more distant one of the ground transmission stations over a closer one of the ground transmission stations.