US 11,737,041 B2
Multimodal inroute timing synchronization system
Murali Regunathan, Washington, DC (US); Zheng Wu, Germantown, MD (US); and John Border, Middleton, MD (US)
Assigned to Hughes Network Systems, LLC, Germantown, MD (US)
Filed by Hughes Network Systems, Germantown, MD (US)
Filed on Sep. 9, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/930,800.
Application 17/930,800 is a continuation of application No. 17/398,126, filed on Aug. 10, 2021, granted, now 11,490,347.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/145,312, filed on Feb. 3, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0083699 A1, Mar. 16, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H04W 56/00 (2009.01); H04B 7/185 (2006.01); H04W 88/16 (2009.01)
CPC H04W 56/0045 (2013.01) [H04B 7/18528 (2013.01); H04W 56/006 (2013.01); H04W 88/16 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for determining inroute frame timing for a burst, the method comprising:
receiving an appointment to transmit, on an inroute, at a start of a slot X of a frame number M;
establishing an arrival time of a Super Frame Numbering Packet (SFNP) comprising a frame number N;
calculating, based on a satellite ephemeris vector, a timing offset (TRO) to be applied to the arrival time to compensate for a time varying gateway-satellite-terminal propagation delay based on a propagation time from gateway to satellite plus a propagation time from satellite to terminal (THS+TSR);
setting a transmit instant as an end of the TRO after the arrival time;
adding to the transmit instant a duration of X slots and a duration of (M-N) frames; and
transmitting the burst, on the inroute from the terminal, at the transmit instant,
wherein a gateway receives the burst in the slot X within the frame number M of the inroute, and N is greater than or equal to M.