Patent ID: 6463070
Filing Date: 2002-10-08
Classification: H04B,H04L,H04N,H04W

Abstract:
A communication system, comprising:at least one remote unit; a satellite in operable communication with the at least one remote unit; a hub station in operable communication with the satellite, the hub station comprising: a plurality of channel buffers for storing databits received from the satellite at the hub station, each of the channel buffers having an associated last-processed time; and a plurality of processors, wherein each of the processors respectively analyzes each of the plurality of channel buffers, and wherein each of the plurality of processors determines with respect to a currently selected channel buffer whether the currently selected channel buffer has sufficient amount of databits to process, the determining comprising: determining a current time, and determining whether the difference in time between the current time and the last-processed time associated with the currently selected channel buffer is greater than a threshold, and wherein each of the processors processes the databits upon the determination that the currently selected channel buffer for the processor has a sufficient amount of databits to process, and wherein the each of the processors determines whether the databits have been processed by another one of the processors by performing a compare/exchange command with respect to the last-processed time that is associated with the selected channel buffer.