Systems and methods for satellite noise and interference calibration using terminal measurements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016197686-A1
Application number	US-201514590776-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 6, 2015
Priority date	Jan 6, 2015
Publication date	Jul 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for satellite noise and interference calibration using satellite terminal measurements. In one implementation, a method includes partitioning a satellite network into a first partition including a plurality of terminals and a plurality of inroute frequency channels (IFCs); instructing the plurality of terminals of the partition to measure the SINR of the plurality of IFCs; processing the plurality of SINR measurements to compute normalized IFC measurements for each of the plurality of terminals; processing the normalized IFC measurements for each terminal to compute final calibrated IFC SINR offsets for each IFC of the partition; and normalizing the final calibrated IFC SINR offsets with respect to a lowest SINR offset IFC. The normalized final calibration offsets may be made available to each of the satellite terminals. During subsequent operation, the satellite terminals may consider the amount of interference present in an IFC before switching to the channel.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method, comprising:
instructing a terminal to measure the signal to interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of an inroute frequency channel (IFC); receiving the SINR measurement corresponding to the IFC; and determining a SINR offset calibration for the IFC based on the SINR measurement.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting the SINR offset calibration to the terminal.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the SINR measurement corresponding to the IFC is received by a satellite gateway (SGW).

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
instructing a second terminal to measure the SINR of the IFC; receiving the second SINR measurement corresponding to the IFC; and determining the SINR offset calibration for the IFC based on the second SINR measurement; and transmitting the SINR offset calibration to the terminals.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein instructing the terminals to measure the SINR of the IFC comprises:
partitioning a satellite network into a first partition; grouping the terminals into the first partition; and directing the terminals to target the IFC and measure the SINR.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the first partition corresponds to a frequency band comprising the IFC.

7 . The method of claim 5 wherein the first partition corresponds to a satellite beam comprising the IFC.

8 . The method of claim 4 , wherein instructing the terminals to measure the SINR of the IFC comprises instructing each of the terminals to measure the SINR of the IFC a plurality of times.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining that the SINR offset calibration for the IFC needs to be updated.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein determining that the SINR offset calibration needs to be updated comprises determining that the configuration of the satellite network has been changed.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein determining that the SINR offset calibration needs to be updated comprises determining that more than a predetermined amount of time has passed since the last SINR offset calibration update.

12 . A method, comprising:
partitioning a satellite network into a first partition comprising a plurality of terminals and a plurality of inroute frequency channels (IFCs); selecting terminals from the first partition to target one or more of the plurality of IFCs for SINR measurement; and directing each of the selected terminals from the first partition to measure the SINR of the targeted IFCs.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein selecting terminals comprises determining that the terminals are operating with a clear sky SINR:

14 . The method of claim 12 , wherein partitioning the satellite network into the first partition comprises determining that the plurality of terminals share a frequency band comprising the plurality of IFCs.

15 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
partitioning the satellite network into a second partition comprising a second plurality of terminals and a second plurality of IFCs; selecting terminals from the second partition to target one or more of the second plurality of IFCs for SINR measurement; and directing each of the selected terminals from the second partition to measure the SINR of the targeted IFCs of the second plurality of IFC.

16 . The method of claim 15 wherein the first plurality of IFCs correspond to a frequency band of a first satellite beam, and wherein the second plurality of IFCs correspond to a frequency band of a second satellite beam.

17 . A method, comprising:
instructing a plurality of terminals in a satellite network to measure the respective signal to interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of a plurality of inroute frequency channels (IFCs); and determining a SINR offset calibration for each of the plurality of IFCs based on the SINR measurements by the plurality of terminals.

18 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
partitioning the satellite network into a first partition comprising the plurality of terminals and the plurality of IFCs.

19 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising determining that the SINR offset calibration for each of the plurality of IFCs needs to be updated.

20 . The method of claim 17 , wherein determining that the SINR offset calibration needs to be updated comprises determining that the configuration of the satellite network has been changed.

21 . The method of claim 17 , wherein determining that the SINR offset calibration needs to be updated comprises determining that more than a predetermined amount of time has passed since the last SINR offset calibration update.

22 . A system, comprising:
a satellite comprising an inroute channel and an outroute channel; and a satellite gateway (SGW) configured to:
instruct a plurality of terminals over the outroute channel to measure the SINR of a plurality of IFC corresponding to a satellite network partition; and
receive the SINR measurements over the inroute channel.

23 . The system of claim 22 , wherein the SGW is further configured to determine SINR offset calibrations for the plurality of IFC based on the received SINR measurements.

24 . The system of claim 22 , further comprising the plurality of terminals.

25 . The system of claim 24 , wherein each of the plurality of terminals is configured to perform ranging over at least one of the plurality of IFC in response to the instruction from the SGW to measure the SINR.

26 . The system of claim 22 , further comprising:
one or more processors; and one or more non-transitory computer-readable mediums operatively coupled to at least one of the one or more processors and having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, cause at least one of the one or more processors to determine SINR offset calibrations for the plurality of IFC based on the received SINR measurements.

27 . A method, comprising:
partitioning a satellite network into a partition comprising a plurality of terminals and a plurality of inroute frequency channels (IFCs); instructing the plurality of terminals to measure the SINR of the plurality of IFCs; processing the plurality of SINR measurements to compute normalized IFC measurements for each of the plurality of terminals; and processing the normalized IFC measurements for each terminal to compute final calibrated IFC SINR offsets for each IFC of the partition.

28 . The method of claim 27 , further comprising normalizing the final calibrated IFC SINR offsets with respect to a lowest SINR offset IFC.

29 . A system, comprising:
one or more processors; and one or more non-transitory computer-readable mediums operatively coupled to at least one of the one or more processors and having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, cause at least one of the one or more processors to:
compute initial statistics for a plurality of inroute frequency channels (IFCs) SINR measurements made by a plurality of terminals.
normalize the SINR measurements for each terminal; and
determine clear channels of the plurality of IFC based on the normalized SINR measurements.

30 . The system of claim 29 , wherein the instructions when executed by at least one of the one

Assignees

• Hughes Network Systems Llc

Inventors

• Rozmaryn Jacob
• Baer Matthew Benjamin
• Monroy Javier Alveiro

Classifications

• H04B17/21 Primary

  for calibration; for correcting measurements · CPC title

• H04W24/10

  Scheduling measurement reports {; Arrangements for measurement reports} · CPC title

• H04B7/1851 Primary

  Systems using a satellite or space-based relay (H04B7/18508, H04B7/18521 take precedence; providing specific services H04B7/18523 - H04B7/18576) · CPC title

• H04B7/18519

  Operations control, administration or maintenance · CPC title