Patent ID: 11870149
Assignee: SMARTSKY NETWORKS LLC
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 14:
15. A method comprising:
receiving an indication of a location of a ground station relative to an in-flight aircraft;
determining a pointing direction for steering a directive beam toward the location; and
employing a phase control module for control of an antenna assembly of an aircraft to steer the directive beam toward the location, the antenna assembly comprising a plurality of antenna elements disposed in a circular pattern and equidistant from each other in angular separation relative to a common reference point at a center of the circular pattern,
wherein employing the phase control module comprises applying selected phase fronts to each of the antenna elements to generate constructive and destructive interference patterns to define the directive beam,
wherein the selected phase fronts include no phase adjustment, a positive phase adjustment value and a negative phase adjustment value, the positive and negative phase adjustment values each having a same magnitude,
wherein applying the selected phase fronts comprises applying no phase adjustment to antenna elements disposed such that a radius from a center of the circular pattern is substantially perpendicular to a direction of a central axis of the directive beam,
wherein the positive phase adjustment value is applied at least to an antenna element having a radius from the center extending in the direction of the central axis of the directive beam, and
wherein the negative phase adjustment value is applied at least to an antenna element having a radius from the center extending opposite the direction of the central axis of the directive beam.