DIVERSITY COMBINING A USER UPLINK IN A SATELLITE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
A system and method for enhancing a user uplink for satellite communications, including: maintaining a serving reception of the user uplink at a serving satellite; selecting a diversity satellite moving into a competitive position as compared to an elevation angle of the serving satellite; forming a diversity reception of the user uplink at the diversity satellite; and diversity combining the serving reception and the diversity reception to enhance the user uplink for a period longer than a handoff period, wherein the diversity combining is performed while a signal strength difference between the serving reception and the diversity reception is less than or equal to a predefined limit.
1 . A process for enhancing a user uplink for satellite communications, comprising:
maintaining a serving reception of the user uplink at a serving satellite;
selecting a diversity satellite moving into a competitive position as compared to an elevation angle of the serving satellite;
forming a diversity reception of the user uplink at the diversity satellite; and
diversity combining the serving reception and the diversity reception to enhance the user uplink for a period longer than a handoff period,
wherein the diversity combining is performed while a signal strength difference between the serving reception and the diversity reception is less than or equal to a predefined limit.
2 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the predefined limit is 4 dB.
3 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the diversity combining enhances the user uplink by at least 1.4 dB at a serving receiver.
4 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the diversity combining is performed at a serving receiver for the user uplink.
5 . The process of claim 4 , wherein the serving receiver performs a channel estimation and a Doppler compensation on the serving reception and accepts the diversity reception from a diversity receiver, prior to the diversity combining.
6 . The process of claim 1 , wherein a diversity receiver performs a channel estimation and a Doppler compensation on the diversity reception prior to the diversity combining.
7 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the diversity reception is communicated via an Inter-Satellite Link (ISL) for the diversity combining.
8 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the diversity reception is established as the serving reception when the signal strength difference is less than the predefined limit.
9 . The process of claim 1 , wherein one user downlink to a user device is paired with the serving reception and the diversity reception.
10 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the maintaining of the serving reception is terminated to conserve a transmission power of the serving satellite.
11 . A system to enhance a user uplink for satellite communications, comprising:
a serving receiver to maintain a serving reception of the user uplink at a serving satellite;
a diversity satellite to move into a competitive position as compared to an elevation angle of the serving satellite and to form a diversity reception of the user uplink at the diversity satellite; and
a diversity combiner to enhance the serving reception and the diversity reception for a period longer than a handoff period,
wherein the diversity combiner operates while a signal strength difference between the serving reception and the diversity reception is less than or equal to a predefined limit.
12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the predefined limit is 4 dB.
13 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the diversity combiner enhances the user uplink by at least 1.4 dB at a serving receiver.
14 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the diversity combiner operates at a serving receiver for the user uplink.
15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the serving receiver performs a channel estimation and a Doppler compensation on the serving reception and accepts input from a diversity receiver, prior to the diversity combiner.
16 . The system of claim 11 , wherein a diversity receiver performs a channel estimation and a Doppler compensation on the diversity reception prior to the diversity combiner.
17 . The system of claim 11 , further comprising an Inter-Satellite Link (ISL) to communicate the diversity reception to the diversity combiner.
18 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the diversity reception is established as the serving reception when the signal strength difference is less than the predefined limit.
19 . The system of claim 11 , wherein one user downlink to a user device is paired with the serving reception and the diversity reception.
20 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the serving reception is terminated to conserve a transmission power of the serving satellite.