Patent ID: 7483672
Filing Date: 2009-01-27
Classification: G08G,H04B

Abstract:
1. A method of communicating data among a plurality of mobile platforms via at least one geostationary satellite, said method comprising the steps of: establishing a plurality of geographic regions dependent upon at least one of beam coverage areas of the at least one geostationary satellite and traffic loads associated with each region; sending an inbound message, from one of said plurality of mobile platforms, via said at least one geostationary satellite and a base station to a control center, the inbound message including spatial information for said one mobile platform; consolidating, by the control center, of the inbound message, to thereby reduce a traffic volume of outbound messages associated with said inbound message; and sending outbound messages dependent upon the consolidated inbound message, via the base station and the at least one geostationary satellite, to a sub-set of said plurality of mobile platforms, said sub-set of mobile platforms being in at least one of (a) the same geographic region, and (b) adjacent geographic region(s), as said one mobile platform; wherein after the sending of the inbound message, and prior to the sending of the outbound messages, the method comprises the further steps of: determining a total traffic load for the plurality of mobile platforms as a function of spatial locations of the mobile platforms; and establishing a plurality of geographic regions, each of which contains an associated sub-set of the plurality of mobile platforms, to thereby balance, between the plurality of geographic regions, the traffic load for each of the associated sub-sets of the plurality of the mobile platforms, wherein: the inbound message is sent over a first geostationary satellite using the L band frequency for the mobile platforms-to-satellite up-link and the C band frequency for the satellite-to-base station down-link, and the outbound message is sent over a second geostationary satellite using the C band frequency for the base station-to-satellite up-link and the C band frequency for the satellite-to-mobile platforms down-link.