System for non-terrestrial communications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11411637-B2
Application number	US-202016833124-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 27, 2020
Priority date	Sep 29, 2017
Publication date	Aug 9, 2022
Grant date	Aug 9, 2022

Abstract

System including a gateway, a non-terrestrial node, a terrestrial node and at least a user equipment and a HARQ controller, the gateway being configured to forward a data packet, the data packet to be transmitted to the user equipment, to the non-terrestrial node, the non-terrestrial node being configured to forward the received data packet to the user equipment using a signal, the user equipment being configured to analyze the received data packet regarding a transmission error and/or to analyze the signal from the non-terrestrial node regarding a signal quality and to generate a negative acknowledgment command or an acknowledgement command dependent on the transmission error or to generate another signal indicating the reception signal quality dependent on the reception signal quality, the user equipment being configured to transmit the acknowledgement command and the non-acknowledgement command or the other signal to the terrestrial node communicating with the non-terrestrial node.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A terrestrial node of a system, the system comprising a gateway, a non-terrestrial node, a terrestrial node and at least a user equipment, wherein terrestrial node comprises a HARQ controller, wherein the gateway is configured to forward a data packet, said data packet to be transmitted to the user equipment, to the non-terrestrial node, wherein the non-terrestrial node is configured to forward the received data packet to the user equipment using a signal, wherein the user equipment is configured to analyze the received data packet with regard to a transmission error or to analyze the signal from the non-terrestrial node with regard to a signal quality and to generate a negative acknowledgment command or an acknowledgement command dependent on the transmission error or to generate another signal indicating the reception signal quality dependent on the reception signal quality, wherein the user equipment is configured to transmit the acknowledgement command and the non-acknowledgement command or the other signal to the terrestrial node which communicates with the non-terrestrial node, the terrestrial node, the terrestrial node comprising:
a non-terrestrial signal receiver configured to receive the data packet or a redundancy version of the data packet from the non-terrestrial node;
a memory configured to buffer the data packet or the redundancy version of the data packet;
a terrestrial signal receiver configured to receive the acknowledgement command or the non-acknowledgement command from the user equipment; and
a terrestrial signal transmitter configured to retransmit the data packet or a redundancy version of the data packet to the user equipment as response to the non-acknowledgment command;
wherein the terrestrial node is configured to listen to a data signal from the non-terrestrial node in order to receive the data packet sent to the user equipment;
wherein the terrestrial node comprises a decoder which is configured to decode the data packet in order to generate at least one redundancy version of the data packet; and wherein the decoder performs the decoding and generating the redundancy versions for each data packet received by the satellite signal receiver independent on a request.

2. The terrestrial node according to claim 1 , wherein the terrestrial node is configured to forward another data packet received from the user equipment to the non-terrestrial node.

3. The terrestrial node according to claim 1 , wherein the HARQ controller is integrated into the terrestrial node and configured to decode the acknowledgement command and the non-acknowledgment command and to control the retransmission.

4. The terrestrial node according to claim 1 , wherein the terrestrial node is configured to forward the acknowledgement command or the non-acknowledgement command to the gateway via the satellite.

5. The terrestrial node according to claim 1 , wherein the decoder is configured to decode and generate data packets on request.

6. The terrestrial node according to claim 1 , wherein the decoder is configured to receive an information from the user equipment regarding the reception signal quality and to suppress the decoding and generating, when the reception signal quality is marked as idle or when non.

7. The terrestrial node according to claim 1 , wherein the decoder is configured to decode the data packet, when the user equipment is associated with the terrestrial node, and to suppress the decoding, in case the user equipment is not associated with the terrestrial node.

8. The terrestrial node according to claim 1 , wherein the terrestrial node is configured to receive the data packet or a redundancy version of the data packet via a separate channel from the non-terrestrial node.

9. A method for operating a terrestrial node a system, the system comprising a gateway, a non-terrestrial node, a terrestrial node and at least a user equipment, wherein terrestrial node comprises a HARQ controller, wherein the gateway is configured to forward a data packet, said data packet to be transmitted to the user equipment, to the non-terrestrial node, wherein the non-terrestrial node is configured to forward the received data packet to the user equipment using a signal, wherein the user equipment is configured to analyze the received data packet with regard to a transmission error or to analyze the signal from the non-terrestrial node with regard to a signal quality and to generate a negative acknowledgment command or an acknowledgement command dependent on the transmission error or to generate another signal indicating the reception signal quality dependent on the reception signal quality, wherein the user equipment is configured to transmit the acknowledgement command and the non-acknowledgement command or the other signal to the terrestrial node which communicates with the non-terrestrial node, the method comprises the following steps:
listening to a data signal from the non-terrestrial node in order to receive the data packet sent to the user equipment;
receiving the data packet or a redundancy version of the data packet from the non-terrestrial node using a non-terrestrial signal receiver;
buffering the data packet or the redundancy version of the data packet using a memory;
receiving the acknowledgment command or the non-acknowledgment command from the user equipment using the terrestrial signal receiver; and
retransmitting the buffered data packet or the buffered redundancy version of the data packet to the user equipment using a terrestrial transceiver as response to the non-acknowledgment command;
decoding the data packet in order to generate at least one redundancy version of the data packet; and performing the decoding and generating the redundancy versions for each data packet received by the satellite signal receiver independent on a request.

10. A system comprising a gateway, a non-terrestrial node, a terrestrial node and at least a user equipment, wherein terrestrial node is formed according to claim 1 .

11. The satellite according to claim 10 , wherein the one or more transmitters are configured to transmit the data packet or the redundancy version of the data packet to the terrestrial node using dedicated wide band channel.

12. The satellite according to claim 10 , wherein the HARQ controller is integrated into the gateway and controls the transmitter of the satellite, wherein the transmitter of the satellite is controlled by the gateway which assigns different resources for transmitting the data packet to the user equipment and for transmitting the data packet or the redundancy version of the data packet to the terrestrial node.

13. The satellite according to claim 10 , wherein the transmitter of the satellite is controlled by the gateway which assigns different resources for transmitting the data packet to the user equipment and for transmitting the data packet or the redundancy version of the data packet to the terrestrial node.

14. A satellite of a system, the system comprising a gateway, a non-terrestrial node, a terrestrial node and at least a user equipment as well as a HARQ controller, wherein the gateway is configured to forward a data packet, said data packet to be transmitted to the user equipment, to the non-terrestrial node, wherein the non-terrestrial node is configured to forward the received data packet to the user equipment using a signal, wherein the user equipment is configured to analyze the received data packet with regard to a transmission error or to analyze the signal from the non-terrestrial node with regard to a signal quality and to generate a negative acknowledgment command or an acknowle

Assignees

• Fraunhofer Ges Forschung

Inventors

• Hassan Hussein Khaled Shawky
• Rohde Christian
• Heyn Thomas

Classifications

• H04B7/18526

  Arrangements for data linking, networking or transporting, or for controlling an end to end session (data switching networks H04L12/00) · CPC title

• H04L1/0026

  Transmission of channel quality indication · CPC title

• H04L1/1816

  with retransmission of the same, encoded, message · CPC title

• H04L1/1835 Primary

  Buffer management · CPC title

• H04L2001/0097

  Relays · CPC title