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

Claim 10:
11. A satellite usable to orbit Earth along a specified orbital plane comprising:
(a) a plurality of terminals, the plurality of terminals including at least a pair of intraorbital optical terminals and a plurality of additional terminals including a first additional terminal and a second additional optical terminal, wherein each intraorbital optical terminal is operable to establish an intraorbital optical data link to an adjacent satellite within the same specified orbital plane, and each additional terminal is operable to establish an additional data link to a location external to the specified orbital plane;
(b) a processor configured to operate the satellite in a first mode of operation and a second mode of operation, wherein
i) in the first mode of operation, the satellite is configured to acquire satellite-specific data using the first additional terminal and to relay the satellite-specific data to at least one of the adjacent satellites in the same orbital plane using at least one of the intraorbital optical terminals;
ii) in the second mode of operation, the satellite is configured to receive aggregate satellite-specific data from at least one of the adjacent satellites in the same orbital plane, the aggregate satellite-specific data corresponding to satellite-specific data acquired by at least two other satellites in the same orbital plane, and to relay the aggregate satellite-specific data to a trunk satellite in a different altitude of orbit around Earth using the second additional optical terminal, the trunk satellite configured to transmit the aggregate satellite-specific data to a relay trunk satellite configured to relay the aggregate satellite-specific data to a corresponding ground station;

wherein the second additional optical terminal has a limited field of regard to establish the additional optical link to the trunk satellite.