Patent ID: 7751815

Claim:
A system for providing wireless data communication services to a plurality of wireless subscriber devices that are located in an aircraft, comprising: aircraft network, located in said aircraft, for generating radio frequency communication signals to communicate with a plurality of wireless subscriber devices that are located in said aircraft to exchange data between said plurality of wireless subscriber devices and said aircraft network; air-to-ground network for bi-directional radio frequency communications between said aircraft and a ground-based communications network having at least one ground-based base station located on the ground for interconnection with at least one packet data switching system; and aircraft interface for interconnecting said aircraft network and said air-to-ground network to establish bi-directional data communications sessions between said wireless subscriber devices and said ground-based communications network to interconnect said wireless subscriber devices with said packet data switching system by exchanging both subscriber data traffic and at least one of network signaling and administrative data on separate concurrently available logical channels, comprising: in-cabin call termination for providing a signaling termination for each call from a one of said wireless subscriber devices that are located in the aircraft to provide protocol management of signaling to both said ground-based communications network and said wireless subscriber devices, comprising: a first aircraft interface channel for providing a radio frequency interface to the wireless subscriber devices to provide a pseudo base station with transparent handset signaling to mimic the operation of the ground-based base station to the wireless subscriber devices; and a second aircraft interface channel for providing a radio frequency interface to the ground-based base transceiver to provide mirrored handset signaling to mimic the operation of the wireless subscriber devices to the ground-based base station.