Patent ID: 11916592
Assignee: HONEYWELL LIMITED HONEYWELL LIMITÉE
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A communication system comprising:
(a) a plurality of LEO satellites in low-earth orbit around Earth in a specified LEO orbital plane, the plurality of LEO satellites spaced apart from one another along the specified orbital plane, wherein each LEO satellite is configured to acquire satellite-specific data and each LEO satellite includes LEO inter-satellite links with at least one other LEO satellite in the specified LEO orbital plane; and
(b) a plurality of trunk satellites in a medium earth orbit around Earth in a specified MEO orbital plane, wherein each trunk satellite includes MEO inter-satellite links with at least one other trunk satellite in the specified MEO orbital plane, wherein at any time at least one of the trunk satellites operates as a relay trunk satellite in position to maintain optical communication with a specified ground station on the Earth;
wherein each LEO satellite has a limited field of regard to establish optical communication with any trunk satellite in the plurality of trunk satellites;
a relay LEO satellite from the plurality of LEO satellites is configured to establish optical communication with a corresponding trunk satellite at a given time;
the plurality of LEO satellites are configured to provide aggregate satellite-specific data to the relay LEO satellite, the aggregate satellite-specific data corresponding to satellite-specific data from at least two LEO satellites, by relaying the satellite specific data from each LEO satellite in at least a portion of the specified orbital plane to that relay LEO satellite, the portion comprising at least two LEO satellites;
the relay LEO satellite is configured to relay the aggregate satellite-specific data to the corresponding trunk satellite; and
the relay trunk satellite is configured to relay the received aggregate satellite-specific data to the corresponding ground station, the relay trunk satellite being different from the corresponding trunk satellite.