Patent ID: 6157896
Filing Date: 2000-12-05
Classification: G01S,H04B

Abstract:
A method for communicating geolocation and messages from a device to a receiving station, comprising the steps of:a) receiving signals by the device from a position determining system;b) determining a geolocation, a speed value, and a heading value of the device from the received position determining signals;c) determining automatically and autonomously a visibility reduction based on proximate deployment constraints stored in the device and the device heading value;d) determining a visibility time duration when a low earth orbit satellite is visible to both the device and the receiving station by using a current time, the device geolocation, the receiving station geolocation, the visibility reduction, and low earth orbit satellite ephemeris data stored in the device; ande) transmitting the geolocation, the speed value, the heading value, and messages from the device to the low earth orbit satellite during the visibility time duration when the low earth orbit satellite is visible to both the device and the receiving station for relay to the receiving station by the low earth orbit satellite.