US 11,973,575 B2
High-throughput satellite with sparse fixed user beam coverage
Anil Agarwal, North Potomac, MD (US); Remberto Martin, Centennial, CO (US); Erwin Hudson, Rockcliff Park, CO (US); and Clifford Burdick, Vista, CA (US)
Assigned to Viasat, Inc., Carlsbad, CA (US)
Filed by VIASAT Inc., Carlsbad, CA (US)
Filed on Jul. 9, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/371,781.
Application 17/371,781 is a continuation of application No. 16/489,344, granted, now 11,088,757, previously published as PCT/US2018/022766, filed on Mar. 15, 2018.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/472,093, filed on Mar. 16, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2021/0336693 A1, Oct. 28, 2021
Int. Cl. H04B 7/204 (2006.01); H04B 7/185 (2006.01); H04B 7/19 (2006.01)
CPC H04B 7/2041 (2013.01) [H04B 7/18513 (2013.01); H04B 7/18515 (2013.01); H04B 7/19 (2013.01)] 30 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A satellite communications system, comprising:
a geostationary satellite; and
an antenna system positioned on the geostationary satellite, the antenna system comprising:
a plurality of fixed feeder beam antenna elements configured to provide respective fixed feeder beams that illuminate respective feeder beam coverage areas that do not overlap with each other, each fixed feeder beam antenna element allocated a same feeder-link spectrum, and the fixed feeder beam antenna elements configured to communicate with gateway terminals within the respective feeder beam coverage areas via the respective fixed feeder beams;
a plurality of fixed user beam antenna elements coupled with the plurality of fixed feeder beam antenna elements via a plurality of transponders, the plurality of fixed user beam antenna elements configured to provide respective fixed user beams that illuminate respective user beam coverage areas that do not overlap with each other, each fixed user beam antenna element allocated a same user-link spectrum, and the fixed user beam antenna elements configured to communicate with user terminals within the respective user beam coverage areas via the respective fixed user beams, wherein the respective user beam coverage areas of the fixed user beam antenna elements comprise a first subset of candidate coverage zones of a plurality of candidate coverage zones segmented from a coverage area of the geostationary satellite;
a beam steering subsystem; and
a steerable antenna controllably pointable by the beam steering subsystem, wherein the steerable antenna is assigned to selectively cover a second subset of the plurality of candidate coverage zones with a plurality of steerable user beams,
wherein each candidate coverage zone of the first and second subsets of candidate coverage zones is associated with a respective demand certainty score that is a function of a magnitude of a predicted consumption demand associated with the candidate coverage zone and a certainty of the predicted consumption demand associated with the candidate coverage zone, wherein the respective demand certainty score associated with each of the first subset of candidate coverage zones satisfies a score threshold, and wherein the respective demand certainty score associated with each of the second subset of candidate coverage zones does not satisfy the score threshold.