Patent ID: 11923955
Assignee: SMARTSKY NETWORKS LLC
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A unified radio system for providing wireless communication to a communication device on an aircraft regardless of aircraft altitude, the system comprising:
a terrestrial network comprising a plurality of terrestrial base stations configured to communicate primarily in a ground communication layer below a first altitude;
an air-to-ground (ATG) network comprising a plurality of ATG base stations configured to communicate primarily in an ATG communication layer above a second altitude;
an air-to-air mesh (ATA) network for data relays through connected aircraft, and
an aircraft with an onboard antenna assembly and a unified radio;
wherein the unified radio is configured to monitor network parameters of the terrestrial network, the ATG network and the ATA network and switch between a currently serving network and a non-serving network based on the network parameters.