Dynamic satellite beam switching
A dynamic satellite map updating system measures geographic position and travel information of in-flight aircraft in a fleet of aircraft equipped to establish in-flight connectivity services from a plurality of satellite beams. The in-flight aircraft include an on-board satellite map program with satellite map parameters to indicate which satellite beam of a group of available satellite beams is the most desirable based on the in-flight aircraft's geographic location. The system selects in-flight aircraft, determines updated satellite map parameters for the selected aircraft, and transmits the updated satellite map parameters to the aircraft to assemble new satellite map programs to relieve wireless data outage conditions on one or more of the satellite beams. The dynamic satellite updating system may transmit the updated satellite map parameters over an existing satellite data connection to make up-to-date adjustments to the communications load among the group of available satellite beams.
1. A method of updating a satellite map program on an in-flight aircraft, the method comprising:
obtaining geographic position data of a plurality of in-flight aircraft;
detecting a plurality of satellite beams configured to provide wireless data connections to the plurality of in-flight aircraft based on the obtaining operation, each of the plurality of in-flight aircraft having a satellite map including a set of satellite map parameters for selecting a satellite beam of the plurality of satellite beams;
outputting, at an in-flight connectivity ground station, an updated set of satellite beam connection parameters for at least one of the plurality of in-flight aircraft, the at least one of the plurality of in-flight aircraft being configured to connect a modem to a selected satellite beam of the plurality of satellite beams according to satellite map parameters in an on-board satellite map program; and
transmitting by the in-flight connectivity ground station, the updated set of satellite beam connection parameters to the at least one of the plurality of in-flight aircraft.
2. The method of claim 1 , further including:
determining whether a satellite originating one or more of the satellite beams satisfies an outage condition, the updated set of satellite beam connection parameters depending on the determining operation, the updated set of satellite beam connection parameters further including an instruction to not connect to the satellite that satisfies the outage condition.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the updated set of satellite parameters comprise changes to the satellite map program.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the updated set of satellite parameters comprise a complete satellite map program.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the updated set of satellite parameters includes relative priorities of the plurality of satellite beams.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the updated set of satellite parameters includes an instruction to resume a connection with one of the plurality of satellite beams.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of updated satellite map parameters lower a priority of one of the plurality satellite beams during a maintenance time period, the one of the plurality of satellite beams originating at a satellite undergoing maintenance during the maintenance time period.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the updated set of satellite map parameters include desirability values for the plurality of satellite beams, the desirability values being based at least in part on a location of the one or more in-flight aircraft.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the load balanced satellite map parameters further include desirability margin values, the desirability margin values being an amount by which a quality of service improvement must exceed before switching satellite beams.
10. A system for updating a satellite map program on an in-flight aircraft comprising:
an in-flight aircraft geographic locator configured to collect geographic locations of a plurality of in-flight aircraft;
a satellite beam inspector configured to evaluate a readiness of each of a plurality of satellite beams;
a satellite beam map updater configured to:
determine whether one or more satellite beams of the plurality of satellite beams does not satisfy a readiness condition;
generate one or more sets of updated satellite map parameters configured to modify a satellite map program on-board in-flight aircraft; and
a data transmitter configured to transmit the at least one of the one or more updated satellite map parameters to one or more of the plurality of in-flight aircraft.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the readiness condition is not satisfied if one of the one or more satellite beams is unavailable.
12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the readiness condition is not satisfied if one of the one or more satellite beams is scheduled for maintenance.
13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more sets of updated satellite map parameters include a relative priority ranking of the plurality of satellite beams.
14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more sets of updated satellite map parameters includes instructions to disconnect from a particular satellite beam if an in-flight aircraft is connected thereto.
15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the updated satellite map parameters include one or more timestamps specifying time periods during which the satellite map parameters are valid.
16. The system of claim 10 , wherein the satellite beam updater is further configured to generate the one or more sets of updated satellite map parameters based at least in part on one of: weather patterns, jet stream perturbations, local traffic, route changes, and seasonal demand.
17. A method of selecting a satellite beam, the method comprising:
obtaining, at an in-flight aircraft, a satellite map program specifying satellite map parameters for selecting a satellite beam from a plurality of satellite beams;
selecting a first satellite beam from the plurality of satellite beams based on the satellite map parameters;
opening a wireless data connection over the first satellite beam;
receiving, at the in-flight aircraft, via the first satellite beam updated satellite map parameters;
combining the satellite map program with the updated satellite map parameters to output an updated satellite map program;
selecting a second satellite beam from the plurality of satellite beams based on the updated satellite map program; and
opening a wireless data connection over the second satellite beam.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the operations that select the first satellite beam and the second satellite beam based on the updated satellite map program are not performed by an on-board modem.
19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the updated satellite map parameters constitute a complete satellite map program.
20. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
discarding the different satellite map parameters after expiration of a time period specified by a timestamp, the timestamp being included in the updated satellite map parameters.