Patent ID: 7920860

Claim:
A system for managing radio frequency communications in a non-terrestrial region of space between a plurality of wireless subscriber devices located in an aircraft and a plurality of Air-To-Ground terrestrial base stations of an Air-To-Ground cellular communications network, comprising: a plurality of Air-To-Ground terrestrial base stations of said Air-To-Ground cellular communications network for populating said non-terrestrial region of space with a plurality of multi-dimensional Radio Frequency sectors, each multi-dimensional Radio Frequency sector having a plurality of radio frequency characteristics, to exchange call traffic with an aircraft; a plurality of independently operable radio frequency antennas mounted on the exterior surface of said aircraft; interface, located in said aircraft, for generating radio frequency communication signals for selected ones of said plurality of independently operable antennas to establish multiple simultaneous Air-To-Ground Radio Frequency communications links to exchange call traffic between said plurality of wireless subscriber devices and a plurality of cells and sectors of said Air-To-Ground cellular communications network; data flow controller, located in said aircraft, comprising: traffic determination process for determining the traffic load in said aircraft, network signaling process for receiving terrestrial network load balancing information received from said Air-To-Ground cellular communications network, and data router, responsive to said determined traffic load and said received network traffic load balancing information, for distributing said call traffic from said plurality of wireless subscriber devices among said plurality of radio frequency antennas to simultaneously maintain multiple Air-To-Ground Radio Frequency communications links, each link serving a portion of said call traffic from said plurality of wireless subscriber devices.