Patent ID: 11894912
Assignee: OQ TECHNOLOGY S.á.R.L.
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G  Y | IPC H

Claim 8:
9. A control method for a terminal device in a non-terrestrial cellular data communication network, the network comprising at least one airborne or spaceborne base station moving along a flight trajectory, for connecting the terminal device to said network, the method comprising the following steps:
providing flight trajectory data for said least one airborne or spaceborne base station in a memory element of said terminal device;
providing terminal location data in the memory element of said terminal device;
using a data processing unit, determining at least one time slot during which a wireless communication channel between said terminal device and said least one airborne or spaceborne base station is estimated to be available, based on said flight trajectory data and on said terminal location data; and
using the data processing unit, scheduling a data reception or transmission between said terminal device and said least one airborne or spaceborne base station during the determined time slot,
wherein said at least one airborne or spaceborne base station is configured for transmitting a reference timing signal, and wherein the non-terrestrial cellular data communication network comprises a location service node storing information describing each airborne or spaceborne base station's respective flight trajectory,
wherein the step of providing terminal location data further comprises the following steps:
at the terminal device, accumulating over time the respective arrival times of the reference timing signal received from at least three different positions taken by at least one airborne or spaceborne base station;
computing, from said arrival times, at least two arrival time differences with respect to one reference arrival time;
transmitting, at the terminal device, said computed differences to said location service node, through one of said at least one airborne or spaceborne base station;
at said location service node, receiving said computed differences, computing a location estimate of said terminal device using said computed differences and said stored information describing each of the reference timing signal transmitting airborne or spaceborne base station's respective flight trajectory, and transmitting said location estimate to said terminal device, through one of said at least one airborne or spaceborne base station; and
at the terminal device, receiving said location estimate from one of said at least one airborne or spaceborne base station and storing it in the memory element.