US 11,729,684 B1
Low latency schedule-driven handovers
Chen Chen, Irvine, CA (US); Pavel Chikulaev, Redmond, WA (US); Sergii Ziuzin, Redmond, WA (US); David Sacks, Redmond, WA (US); Peter J. Worters, San Carlos, CA (US); Darshan Purohit, Fremont, CA (US); Yashodhan Dandekar, Cupertino, CA (US); Vladimir Skuratovich, Seattle, WA (US); Andrei Pushkin, Woodinville, WA (US); and Phillip E. Barber, Sammamish, WA (US)
Assigned to Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Hawthorne, CA (US)
Filed by Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Hawthorne, CA (US)
Filed on Jun. 2, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/337,214.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/035,443, filed on Jun. 5, 2020.
Int. Cl. H04W 36/06 (2009.01); H04B 7/06 (2006.01); H04B 7/185 (2006.01); H04W 36/08 (2009.01)
CPC H04W 36/06 (2013.01) [H04B 7/0695 (2013.01); H04B 7/18513 (2013.01); H04W 36/08 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a user terminal associated with a cell served by a satellite, a schedule of communications between the user terminal and one or more satellites, wherein the one or more satellites comprises the satellite and a different satellite;
requesting, based on the schedule, a handover from a beam of the satellite to a different beam of one of the satellite or the different satellite;
prior to a completion of the handover, processing packets transmitted over at least one of the beam of the satellite and the different beam of the one of the satellite or the different satellite;
performing the handover from the beam of the satellite to the different beam of the one of the satellite or the different satellite; and
after the handover, transmitting, by the user terminal, one or more packets via the different beam of the one of the satellite or the different satellite.