Patent ID: 6741573
Filing Date: 2004-05-25
Classification: H04B

Abstract:
In a communication system having (1) a satellite, (2) a service provider having a managing server, (3) a plurality of clients, each client having a bidirectional network interface and a receive-only satellite interface for receiving signals from the satellite, and (4) a network connected intermediate the service provider and the bi-directional network interface of each client, a method for dynamically assigning a satellite link to a given client wherein the managing server assigns an IP address to the receive-only satellite interface of the given client in response to a request that is transmitted from the given client to the service provider via the given client's bi-directional network interface and the network, the method comprising the steps of;storing unique identification information for each of the plurality of clients at the service provider; providing a unique pool of IP addresses for each of the plurality of clients at the service provider, each pool of IP addresses listing a number of IP addresses associated with a corresponding client; providing an assigned IP address list, the assigned IP address list containing IP addresses that have been assigned to clients; utilizing the bi-directional interface of the given client to establish a bi-directional network communication link between the given client and the managing server in response to a request from the given client; in response to the request from the given client, utilizing the managing server to dynamically assign a unique satellite link to the given client based on the stored unique identification information of the given client; in response to the request from the given client, assigning from the pool of IP addresses associated with the given client an IP address that is unique to the assigned satellite link; listing the assigned IP address in the assigned IP address list; utilizing the bi-directional network communication link to transmit the assigned IP address from the managing server to the given client; utilizing the assigned IP address at the given client as a source address within the given client's receive-only satellite interface; and utilizing the bi-directional network communication link at the given client to transmit an IP packet from the given client to a destination server, the IP packet including the source address.