Patent ID: 7890097

Claim:
A satellite radiotelephone system comprising: a space-based component that is configured to receive wireless communications from a plurality of first radiotelephones in a satellite footprint over a satellite radiotelephone frequency band; an ancillary terrestrial network that is configured to receive/transmit wireless communications from/to a plurality of second radiotelephones in the satellite footprint over the satellite radiotelephone frequency band, the space-based component also receiving the wireless communications from the second radiotelephones and/or the ancillary terrestrial network in the satellite footprint over the satellite radiotelephone frequency band as interference along with the wireless communications that are received from the first radiotelephones in the satellite footprint over the satellite radiotelephone frequency band; and an interference reducer that is responsive to the space-based component and to the ancillary terrestrial network, and that is configured to reduce the interference in the wireless communications that are received by the space-based component from the first radiotelephones in the satellite footprint over the satellite radiotelephone frequency band, using as an input to the interference reducer, selected wireless communications that are received by the ancillary terrestrial network from selected ones of the second radiotelephones in the satellite footprint over the satellite radiotelephone frequency band and/or selected wireless communications that are transmitted by the ancillary terrestrial network to selected ones of the second radiotelephones, so as to reduce a load on the interference reducer compared to using as an input to the interference reducer, all the wireless communications that are received by the ancillary terrestrial network from the second radiotelephones and/or all the wireless communications that are transmitted by the ancillary terrestrial network to the second radiotelephones; wherein the interference reducer comprises a prefilter that is configured to determine the selected ones of the second radiotelephones; and wherein the prefilter is configured to determine the selected ones of the second radiotelephones based on a random or pseudo-random selection, a percentage of the plurality of second radiotelephones satisfying a geographic criterion and/or a likelihood that that the wireless communications that are received by the space-based component from the second radiotelephones will cause interference with the wireless communications that are received by the space-based component from the first radiotelephones.