Patent ID: 11881914
Assignee: SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES CORP.
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A device comprising:
an antenna assembly configured to transmit and receive beams with a first satellite;
a modem electrically coupled to the antenna assembly; and
a beam steering controller electrically coupled to each of the antenna assembly and the modem, the beam steering controller configured to determine a beam pointing direction of the antenna assembly to be able to one or both of switch a first communication link with the first satellite to a second communication link with a second satellite or establish and maintain the first communication link with the first satellite,
wherein at a start of a determination of the beam pointing direction, one or more of an orientation of the antenna assembly is unknown, positions of a plurality of satellites are unknown, or downlink frequencies of the plurality of satellites are unknown, and
wherein the beam steering controller is configured to find any satellite of the plurality of satellites that is assigned to downlink to a cell associated with the device to yield a found satellite, wherein the found satellite comprises the first satellite, and wherein the beam steering controller is configured to establish the first communication link with the first satellite.