Dynamic satellite beam switching
View Patent ↗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 for dynamically switching satellite beams utilized by an in-flight aircraft, the method comprising:
receiving, at the in-flight aircraft from an external system, an update to one or more satellite map parameters;
updating, at the in-flight aircraft and based on the received update, a set of satellite map parameters for selecting a satellite beam from a plurality of satellite beams; and
based on the updated set of satellite parameters, selecting, by the in-flight aircraft, a second satellite beam and switching, at the in-flight aircraft, a wireless data connection of the in-flight aircraft from utilizing a first satellite beam to utilizing the second satellite beam.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein switching the wireless data connection of the in-flight aircraft comprises switching a wireless data connection established between the in-flight aircraft and a ground system.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless data connection is a first wireless data connection of the in-flight aircraft, and receiving the update to the one or more satellite map parameters comprises receiving the update to the one or more satellite map parameters via a second wireless data connection of the in-flight aircraft.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising discarding one or more updates to the set of satellite map parameters after an expiration of an indicated time period corresponding to an outage of one or more satellite beams.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein updating the set of satellite map parameters comprises updating one or more satellite map parameters corresponding to at least one of: a time stamp, a satellite beam connection, a satellite beam status, a satellite beam connection intensity, a geographic coverage, or a satellite beam priority.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein updating the set of satellite map parameters includes altering a priority level of one of the first satellite beam or the second satellite beam with respect to one or more other satellite beams.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein updating the set of satellite map parameters is further based on a current and/or predicted geographic location of the in-flight aircraft.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein updating the set of satellite parameters is further based on wireless data connection information.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein switching the wireless data connection is based on a hysteresis mechanism.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the update to the one or more satellite map parameters comprises receiving the update to the one or more satellite map parameters via the wireless data connection of the in-flight aircraft utilizing the first satellite beam.
11. A system at an in-flight aircraft for dynamically switching satellite beams utilized by the in-flight aircraft, the system including:
one or more processors; and
one or more tangible, non-transitory memories storing a set of satellite map parameters for selecting a satellite beam from a plurality of satellite beams and a set of computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system at the in-flight aircraft to:
receive, from an external system, an update to at least one satellite parameter;
update the stored set of satellite map parameters based on the received update; and
based on the updated set of satellite map parameters, select a second satellite beam and switch a wireless data connection of the in-flight aircraft from utilizing a first satellite beam to utilizing the second satellite beam.
12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the wireless data connection communicatively connects the in-flight aircraft with a ground system.
13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the wireless data connection is a first wireless data connection of the in-flight aircraft, and the update to the at least one satellite map parameter is received via a second wireless data connection of the in-flight aircraft.
14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the set of computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system at the in-flight aircraft further to: discard one or more updates to the set of satellite map parameters after an expiration of an indicated time period corresponding to an outage of one or more satellite beams.
15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the set of satellite map parameters includes one or more satellite map parameters corresponding to at least one of: a time stamp, a satellite beam connection, a satellite beam status, a satellite beam connection intensity, a geographic coverage, or a satellite beam priority.
16. The system of claim 11 , wherein the update to the at least one satellite map parameter includes an alteration of a priority level of one of the first satellite beam or the second satellite beam with respect to one or more other satellite beams.
17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the update to the at least one satellite map parameter is further based on a current and/or predicted geographic location of the in-flight aircraft.
18. The system of claim 11 , wherein the update to the at least one satellite parameter is further based on wireless data connection information.
19. The system of claim 11 , wherein the switch of the wireless data connection from utilizing the first satellite beam to utilizing the second satellite beam is based on a hysteresis mechanism.
20. The system of claim 11 , wherein the update to the at least one satellite map parameter is received via the wireless data connection of the in-flight aircraft utilizing the first satellite beam.