Patent ID: 7558569

Claim:
A system for providing an aircraft-based wireless communications service, comprising: an aircraft including on-board system equipment for supporting the wireless communications service with on-board user equipment, wherein the on-board user equipment communicates with the on-board system equipment using cellular-type wireless communications; and one or more ground stations communicating with the aircraft using a plurality of feeder links for exchanging the wireless communications service's traffic and control information with the on-board system equipment, and for providing interfaces with a terrestrial telecommunications infrastructure, wherein each of the feeder links is associated with a separate set of wireless signals provided by the on-board system equipment to the on-board user equipment; wherein to transition connections by the on-board user equipment between a first set of wireless signals received from the on-board system equipment and associated with a first feeder link and a second set of wireless signals received from the on-board system equipment and associated with a second feeder link as the aircraft transitions between a first ground station and second ground station, the on-board system equipment temporarily provides both first and second sets of wireless signals to the on-board user equipment, and after allowing time for the on-board user equipment to begin monitoring the second set of wireless signals as well the first set of wireless signals, the on-board system equipment powers down the first set of wireless signals, thereby inducing the on-board user equipment to effect a transition from the first set of wireless signals to the second set of wireless signals, thus switching over all of the on-board user equipment from the signals associated with the first feeder link of the first ground station to the signals associated with the second feeder link of the second ground station.