Patent ID: 10084528

Abstract:
A communications system comprises a ground hub in a background area, aerial vehicles flying in a formation with slowly varying spacing between the aerial vehicles, and a user terminal in a region within a foreground area. The foreground area is spatially separate from the background area. The ground hub comprises a ground-based beam forming facility (GBBF) for receiving and transforming input signals into beam-formed signals, and a first antenna system coupled to the GBBF for transmitting concurrently the beam-formed signals in a first frequency band to respective aerial vehicles via respective background links. The aerial vehicles receive respectively the beam-formed signals via the background links and transmit respectively the beam-formed signals as respective signal beams covering at least the region within the foreground area in a second frequency band. The user terminal comprises a second antenna system for receiving concurrently the signal beams via foreground links to the aerial vehicles.