Service connecting antennas to remote regions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022360322-A1
Application number	US-202217872852-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 25, 2022
Priority date	May 21, 2020
Publication date	Nov 10, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

A Data Delivery Service (DDS) is described, which is a service in a multi-tenant environment that transmits satellite data between a satellite antenna and a user instance. The DDS transports the antenna data to a different region, which allows a user to reuse their infrastructure for multiple antenna sites, thereby, reducing their infrastructure footprint and costs. Gateway instances can be launched at scheduled times in different regions and a secure communication channel can be established between the gateway instances to establish inter-region communication.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer-implemented method of connecting an antenna, for communication with a satellite, to a remote region, the method comprising:
in response to a reservation request of an antenna, provisioning a first gateway server in a source region in which the antenna is located; provisioning a second gateway server in a destination region in which a user instance is executing; establishing a first secure communication channel between the first gateway server and the second gateway server; establishing a second secure communication channel between the antenna and the first gateway server; establishing a third secure communication channel between the second gateway server and the user instance; and transmitting data between the antenna and the user instance over the first, second, and third communication channels.

2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
scheduling a time slot for transmitting the data between the antenna and the user instance between the source and destination regions, wherein the time slot is associated with the reservation request.

3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further including transmitting configuration parameters associated with the antenna to the destination region; and
determining whether the configuration parameters associated with the antenna match the configuration parameters of the user instance, and, if so, generating a reservation in response to the reservation request.

4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the reservation request comprises one or more of the following parameters: the protocol to use when exchanging the data between the user instance and the satellite; a data rate; a length of time to communicate with the satellite; and an amount of data to exchange with the satellite.

5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the source region is in a first data center and the destination region is in a second data center.

6 . A computer-implemented method of connecting an antenna, for communication with a satellite, to a remote region, the method comprising:
receiving a scheduling request for a reservation of the antenna to allow for exchanging data between a client computer and the satellite; performing a control qualification to verify that the antenna is configured to be controlled by a ground station in accordance with the request for the reservation; if the antenna is configured to be controlled in accordance with the request for the reservation, confirming the reservation including an identifier of the antenna, a protocol to use in the communication and a time of the reservation.

7 . The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the scheduling request comprises one or more of the following parameters: the protocol to use when exchanging the data between the client computer and the satellite; a data rate; a length of time to communicate with the satellite; and an amount of data to exchange with the satellite.

8 . The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the method further comprises matching the parameters to the antenna and determining whether the antenna is compatible with the scheduling request.

9 . The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the method further comprises transmitting the scheduling request to an antenna registration service that determines location data of the antenna and the protocol used to communicate with the antenna.

10 . The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the method further comprises performing a control qualification to determine if credentials associated with the scheduling request are authorized to control the antenna.

11 . The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , wherein the control qualification comprises time windows when an antenna owner allows the ground station to take control over the antenna.

12 . The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the method further comprises:
in response to the scheduling request of the antenna, provisioning a first gateway server in a source region in which the antenna is located; provisioning a second gateway server in a destination region in which the client computer is executing; establishing a first secure communication channel between the first gateway server and the second gateway server; establishing a second secure communication channel between the antenna and the first gateway server; establishing a third secure communication channel between the second gateway server and the client computer; and transmitting data between the antenna and the client computer over the first, second, and third communication channels.

13 . The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the method further comprises:
scheduling a time slot for transmitting the data between the antenna and a user instance associated with the client computer, wherein the time slot is associated with the reservation.

14 . The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the method further comprises:
in response to the scheduling request, performing a matchmaking service to match the scheduling request to a plurality of available antennas.

15 . A system, comprising:
a satellite ground station service communicatively coupled to a plurality of antennas for communicating with a satellite, the antennas being coupled to the satellite ground station service over a network; one or more computing devices for receiving a request from a client device for controlling a selected antenna of the plurality of antennas to communicate with the satellite during a selected time slot, the one or more computing devices being configured to: model parameters of the request using a capability model; compare the modeled parameters of the request with capabilities of the antennas to determine a targeted time slot for an antenna that is compatible with the request; and provision server computers in two different regions to establish a communication channel between the client device and the selected antenna; wherein the provisioning of the server computers occurs a predetermined period of time before a start of the targeted time slot based upon a reservation.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the provisioning of the server computers includes instances that are launched by selection of available instances on the server computers in the two different regions from pools of instances in each region.

17 . The system of claim 15 , wherein each of the two different regions has a data center, and the provisioned server computers include a server computer in each data center.

18 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to generate a directional graph and solve the directional graph to determine time slots and client devices that have reserved the time slots.

19 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the client device communicates with the satellite through the provisioned server computers, wherein the provisioned server computers establish a secure communication channel between the two different regions.

20 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the reservation is based upon receiving availability data associated with time slots for communicating with the antennas.

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Burns Nathan
• Cheek Kevin
• Dobbs Michelle Lynn
• Leese Matthew Sterling

Classifications

• H04B7/18539

  Arrangements for managing radio, resources, i.e. for establishing or releasing a connection · CPC title

• H04B7/18513 Primary

  Transmission in a satellite or space-based system · CPC title