System and method for maintaining data connectivity over a satellite link

1. A system for maintaining data connectivity in a satellite communications system comprising:

a satellite terminal comprising a ping mechanism;

a satellite ground station; and

a ping server;

wherein the ping mechanism is configured to send a ping message to the ping server and, if the message was returned by the ping server, reset a timer, and if the message was not returned by the ping server, restore data connectivity between the satellite terminal and the satellite ground station,

wherein the ping mechanism is configured to restart a communications stack of the satellite terminal without rebooting the satellite terminal when the ping message sent to the ping server is not returned by the ping server.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the ping server is configured to return the ping message from the satellite terminal upon receiving the ping message.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the satellite terminal comprises an error monitor.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the ping mechanism is configured to restart the communications stack of the satellite terminal when the error monitor detects a configured number of consecutive data errors.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the ping mechanism is configured to reboot the satellite terminal when the communications stack fails to restart.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the ping server is co-located with a data server.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the ping mechanism is configured to ping the ping server when the timer expires.

8. The system of claim 3 , wherein the ping mechanism is configured to ping the ping server when the ping mechanism receives a restart message from the error monitor.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the ping mechanism is configured to ping the ping server when the timer expires and when a ping required is set.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the timer is set to count down from a time greater than a typical interval between data transmissions between the satellite ground station and the satellite terminal.

11. A method for maintaining data connectivity in a satellite communications system comprising:

starting a timer;

sending a ping message to a ping server on expiration of the timer;

determining if the ping message was returned by the ping server; and

if the message was returned by the ping server, resetting the timer, and

if the message was not returned by the ping server, restarting a communications stack of the satellite terminal without rebooting the satellite terminal.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising sending a message to a ping server on expiration of the timer only if there has been no successful sending of data to or receiving of data from a satellite ground station within a configured amount of time.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

receiving a restart message from an error monitor.

14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

determining if the communications stack was previously restarted; and

if the communications stack was previously restarted, rebooting a satellite terminal, and

if the communications stack was not previously restarted, restarting the communications stack.

15. The method of claim 11 , further comprising, when a PDP context is not active and was not active and has not failed more than configured number of times, transitioning to an idle state to allow time for the PDP context to be restarted.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the PDP context is restarted by an active always-on scan.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the timer is set to count down from an interval greater than typical interval between data transmission to and from a satellite ground station.