Dynamic load balancing of satellite beams
A dynamic satellite load balancing 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 load balanced satellite map parameters for the selected aircraft, and transmits the load balanced satellite map parameters to the aircraft to assemble load balanced satellite map programs to relieve wireless data communication saturation conditions on one or more of the satellite beams. The dynamic satellite load balancing system may transmit the load balanced 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 load balancing satellite data connections among a group of in-flight aircraft, the method comprising:
obtaining geographic position data of a plurality of in-flight aircraft;
obtaining, at an in-flight connectivity network ground station, a respective wireless data connection load status of each of a plurality of satellite beams configured to provide wireless data connections, each of the plurality of in-flight aircraft being configured to connect a respective modem to a respective selected satellite beam of the plurality of satellite beams according to respective satellite map parameters included in a respective on-board satellite map program of the each in-flight aircraft, the respective satellite map parameters indicative of respective weights corresponding to the plurality of satellite beams, and the respective weights corresponding to a respective geographic location of the each in-flight aircraft;
determining whether one or more of the plurality of satellite beams satisfies a wireless data connection saturation condition; and
based on the determining operation:
selecting, by the in-flight connectivity network ground station, one or more in-flight aircraft of the plurality of in-flight aircraft;
for each of the one or more selected in-flight aircraft, determining, by the in-flight connectivity network ground station, a respective one or more adjustments to the respective satellite map parameters based on the geographic position data of the plurality of in-flight aircraft to generate respective load balanced satellite map parameters, the respective load balanced satellite map parameters being different from the respective satellite map parameters of the respective on-board satellite map program of the each of the selected one or more in-flight aircraft of the plurality of in-flight aircraft; and
transmitting, by the in-flight connectivity network ground station, to the each of the selected one or more in-flight aircraft of the plurality of in-flight aircraft, the respective load balanced satellite map parameters corresponding to the each of the one or more selected in-flight aircraft.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the respective wireless data connection load status of each of the plurality of satellite beams comprises indirectly obtaining the respective wireless data connection load status of each of the plurality of satellite beams.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the respective load balanced satellite parameters corresponding to the each of the one or more selected in-flight aircraft comprise a respective updated load balanced satellite map program.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless data saturation condition is satisfied at least in part based on a number of active wireless data connections with in-flight aircraft.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless data saturation condition is satisfied based on a relative number of active wireless data connections of the one or more of the plurality of satellite beams compared to other satellite beams of the plurality of satellite beams.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the load balanced satellite map parameters of the one or more selected in-flight aircraft are designed to reduce a wireless data connection saturation condition of a satellite beam included in the one or more of the plurality of satellite beams.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless data connection saturation condition includes a hysteresis period for the one or more of the plurality of satellite beams.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the respective load balanced satellite map parameters corresponding to the each of the one or more selected in-flight aircraft comprise include respective desirability values for the plurality of satellite beams, the respective desirability values being based at least in part on respective locations of the one or more selected in-flight aircraft.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the load balanced satellite map parameters corresponding to the each of the one or more selected in-flight aircraft comprise further include respective desirability margin values, the respective desirability margin values being a respective amount by which a quality of service improvement must exceed before switching satellite beams.
10. A system for load balancing satellite beams among a plurality of in-flight aircraft comprising:
an in-flight aircraft geographic locator configured to collect geographic locations of a plurality of in-flight aircraft, each in-flight aircraft of the plurality of in-flight aircraft having a respective satellite map program, the respective satellite map program of the each in-flight aircraft including a respective set of satellite map parameters indicative of respective weights of a plurality of satellite beams, and the respective weights corresponding to a respective geographic location of the each in-flight aircraft;
a satellite beam load inspector configured to measure a respective communications load of each satellite beam included in the plurality of satellite beams;
a satellite beam load saturation mitigator configured to:
identify one or more satellite beams of the plurality of satellite beams that satisfy a wireless data communication saturation condition; and
generate one or more sets of load balanced satellite map parameters configured to modify respective satellite map programs on-board in-flight aircraft to assemble respective load balanced satellite map programs, each set of load balanced satellite map parameters indicative of a respective one or more adjustments to a corresponding set of satellite map parameters; and
a data transmitter configured to transmit at least one of the one or more sets of load balanced satellite map parameters to one or more of the plurality of in-flight aircraft,
wherein each of the in-flight aircraft geographic locator, the satellite beam load inspector, the satellite beam load inspector, and the satellite beam load saturation mitigator includes respective computer-executable instructions stored on one or more memories of an in-flight connectivity network ground station and executable by one or more processors of the in-flight connectivity network ground station.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more sets of load balanced satellite map parameters are further configured to mitigate the wireless data connection saturation condition of one of the one or more satellite beams.
12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the satellite beam load saturation mitigator is further configured to generate the one or more sets of load balanced satellite map parameters based at least in part on at least one of: weather patterns, jet stream perturbations, local traffic, route changes, or seasonal demand.
13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more sets of load balanced satellite map parameters include a satellite beam blacklist.
14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one of the one or more sets of load balanced satellite map parameters includes a respective relative priority rankings-of the plurality of satellite beams.
15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more sets of load balanced satellite map parameters include instructions to disconnect from a particular satellite beam if an in-flight aircraft is connected thereto.
16. The system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one of the one or more sets of load balanced satellite map parameters includes a respective one or more timestamps specifying time periods during which at least some of the respective load balanced satellite map parameters are valid.
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, the satellite map parameters indicative of respective weights corresponding to the plurality of satellite beams, and the respective weights corresponding to a respective geographic location of the in-flight aircraft;
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, load balanced satellite map parameters, the load balanced satellite map parameters indicative of one or more adjustments to the satellite map parameters determined based on geographic position data of the plurality of in-flight aircraft, and the load balanced satellite map parameters indicative of respective updated weights corresponding to the plurality of satellite beams;
combining the satellite map program with the load balanced satellite map parameters to output a load balanced satellite map program;
selecting a second satellite beam from the plurality of satellite beams based on the load balanced satellite map program; and
opening a wireless data connection over the second satellite beam.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the operation that selects the first satellite beam based on the satellite map parameters and the operation that selects the second satellite beam based on the load balanced satellite map program are not performed by an on-board modem.
19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the load balanced satellite map parameters constitute an updated load balanced satellite map program.
20. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
discarding the at least some of the load balanced satellite map parameters after expiration of a time period specified by a timestamp, the timestamp included in the load balanced satellite map parameters.