Multi-carrier satellite network supporting heterogeneous terminals

摘要

In a satellite communication system, comprising a hub and a plurality of heterogeneous terminals, the hub may split a bandwidth segment designated for a forward channel into at least two carriers, wherein some of the terminals may listen on a first carrier and some other terminals may listen on the at least second carrier. In this system, the hub may re-arrange the split of the bandwidth segment between the various carriers populating it in real-time or substantially in real-time, while the carriers are actively transmitted, and without causing loss of service and/or loss of data to terminals listening on those carriers. The terminals may be configured to track the carriers as they are re-arranged and to maintain seamless service to the end user throughout the re-arrangement process.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
modifying a symbol rate of a transmitted continuous carrier signal, in real-time or substantially in real-time, wherein the signal is modified while the signal is actively transmitted from a transmitter to a receiver in a satellite communication system, and wherein the signal is modified without causing loss of service, service interruption or loss of data at the receiver, wherein modifying the symbol rate of the transmitted continuous carrier signal comprises:
determining, at the transmitter, a need to change the symbol rate of the transmitted signal to a new symbol rate;sending a first notification to the receiver of the expected symbol rate change;receiving an acknowledgement from the receiver, or waiting for a predefined time interval to expire;making, at the transmitter, one or more symbol rate changes to the transmitted signal, wherein the time interval between any two consecutive symbol rate changes is longer than the time interval required for the receiver's tracking loop to converge, and wherein each symbol rate change does not exceed the receiver's tracking loop bandwidth, and wherein the moment of each change is selected as a moment between frames or between transmitted symbols;determining that the new symbol rate has been reached; andsending a second notification to the receiver upon determining that the new symbol rate has been reached, indicating the end of the symbol rate modification process.