ROBUST BEAM SWITCH SCHEDULING

摘要

Systems and methods are described for robust scheduling of beam switching patterns in satellite communications systems. Embodiments operate in context of a hub-spoke satellite communications architecture having a number of gateway terminals servicing large numbers of user terminals over a number of spot beams. The satellite includes switching subsystems that distribute capacity to the user beams from multiple of the gateway terminals in a shared manner according to a beam group switching pattern. The beam group switching pattern is robustly formulated to continue distributing capacity during gateway outages (e.g., when one or two gateway terminals are temporarily non-operational due to rain fade, equipment failure, etc.). For example, the beam group switching pattern can be formulated to minimize worst-case degradation of capacity across user beams, to prioritize certain beams or beam groups, etc.

主权项

1. A method for robust sharing of gateway resources between a plurality of gateway terminals and a plurality of user terminals over a plurality of beams, the system comprising:
receiving return-link communications at input subsystems of a satellite from a plurality of user terminals via a plurality of input beams; sequentially coupling at least one of the input subsystems with a plurality of output subsystems according to a beam group switching pattern in such a way that return-link capacity of each of at least a subset of the input beams is serviced in a shared manner by at least two of the output subsystems; and transmitting the return-link communications from output subsystems of the satellite to a plurality of gateway terminals via a plurality of output beams.