Patent ID: 11968023
Assignee: STAR MESH LLC
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  Y | IPC H

Claim 12:
13. A method for transmitting data in a communication system comprising a constellation of at least 100 satellite nodes orbiting the earth and at least 100 ground-based nodes for creating a radio route for data transmissions between two of said ground-based nodes via one or more of said satellite nodes, each of said nodes including a plurality of directional antennas for transmitting and receiving radio signals in a plurality of different directions, wherein:
said nodes comprise a first node type for transmitting radio signals only in a first frequency band and simultaneously receiving radio signals only in a second frequency band different from said first frequency band, and a second node type for transmitting radio signals only in said second frequency band and simultaneously receiving radio signals only in said first frequency band;
each said ground-based node comprises a sending ground station for transmitting initial information signals including an address of said sending ground station simultaneously from a plurality of its directional antennas;
said satellite nodes comprise a plurality of each of said first node type and said second node type and said ground-based nodes comprise a plurality of each of said first node type and said second node type; and
each said ground-based node comprises a receiving node for receiving routing messages transmitted by said satellite nodes and an originating node for transmitting data to a destination ground station having the sending ground station address included in a routing message received from a satellite node,
the method comprising:
(a) in an initial time slot, sending said initial information signals simultaneously from all of said antennas of all of said sending ground stations nodes;
(b) in a subsequent time slot, (1) determining a quality associated with each initial information signal received by a first tier satellite node, said quality indicating the suitability of said first tier satellite node for incorporation in a radio route for transmitting the data to the sending ground-based node, and (2) storing at each said first tier satellite node the identity of the antenna on which the highest quality initial information signal was received from a particular ground station and said ground station address included in said initial information signal;
(c) in a subsequent time slot, transmitting first tier routing messages simultaneously from all of the antennas of all of said first tier satellite nodes, wherein each said first tier routing message includes said highest quality initial information signal received by a corresponding antenna of said first tier satellite node and the address of the ground station from which said highest quality initial information signal was received;
(d) in a subsequent time slot, (1) determining a first tier composite quality associated with (i) each first tier routing message received by a further node and (ii) the quality of the initial information signal included in said first tier routing message, said first tier composite quality indicating the suitability of said first tier satellite node for incorporation in a radio route for transmitting the data to the sending ground station with the address included in the corresponding first tier routing message, and (2) storing at each said node receiving one or more first tier routing messages the identity of the antenna on which the highest first tier composite quality was received from a corresponding first tier satellite node; and
(e) following step (d), transmitting from said antenna the identity of which was stored in step (d)(2) data addressed to a destination ground station having the associated sending ground station address and sending from the antenna the identity of which was stored in step (b)(2) data received from said further node by said first tier satellite node and addressed to said destination ground station.