Ranging between unsynchronized communication terminals

1. A method for determining a range between two unsynchronized communications terminals comprising:

transmitting, by a first terminal, a range request to a second terminal over a line of sight channel, wherein the first and second terminals are independently in motion with respect to each other and have unsynchronized timing domains, wherein the terminals are satellites;

storing, by the first terminal, a first timestamp in memory corresponding to a time at which the range request message was transmitted;

receiving, by the first terminal from the second terminal, a range response to the range request, the range response including a residence time that characterizes an amount of time the second terminal required to send the range response after receiving the range request;

storing, by the first terminal, a second timestamp in memory corresponding to a time at which the range response was received;

calculating a roundtrip time for the range request and range response based on the second timestamp minus the first timestamp and the residence time;

calculating a distance between the first terminal and the second terminal based on the roundtrip time;

repeatedly measuring a doppler effect through a periodic sequence of range measurements; and

using the doppler effect measurements to compute a corrected range.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second terminals communicate over an optical communications channel.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

adjusting one or more communication parameters on the first terminal based on the calculated range.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first terminal and second terminal are satellites that communicate with each other over a line of sight communication channel.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the timestamps are generated on a physical layer of a communications protocol.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a header of the range request message comprises a range request flag and the method further comprises:

queueing, by the second terminal, the range response for immediate transmission to the first terminal; and

transmitting, by the second terminal, the range response to the first terminal.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a header of the range request message comprises a range request flag, and the method further comprises:

prioritizing, by the second terminal, the range response for transmission to the first terminal in relation to other messages to queued for transmission in the second terminal; and

transmitting, by the second terminal, the range response to the first terminal.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending a message prior to the range request comprising a range request flag;

queueing, by the second terminal after receiving the range request and in response to the range request flag, the range response for immediate transmission to the first terminal; and

transmitting, by the second terminal, the range response to the first terminal.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending a message prior to the range request comprising a range request flag;

prioritizing, by the second terminal after receiving the range request and in response to the range request flag, the range response for transmission to the first terminal; and

transmitting, by the second terminal, the range response to the first terminal.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

calculating relative motion between the first and second terminals; and

applying a correction to the calculated range based on the relative motion, wherein the correction is made by obtaining two sets of range measurements and computing the difference in range divided by the time interval between the two measurements.

11. A system for determining a range between two unsynchronized communications terminals comprising:

at least one data processor; and

memory comprising instructions which, when executed by the at least one data processor, result in operations comprising:

transmitting, by a first terminal, a range request to a second terminal over a line-of-sight communications channel, wherein the first and second terminals are independently in motion with respect to each other and have unsynchronized timing domains, wherein the terminals are satellites;

storing, by the first terminal, a first timestamp in memory corresponding to a time at which the range request message was transmitted;

receiving, by the first terminal from the second terminal, a range response to the range request, the range response including a residence time that characterizes an amount of time the second terminal required to send the range response after receiving the range request;

storing, by the first terminal, a second timestamp in memory corresponding to a time at which the range response was received;

calculating a roundtrip time for the range request and range response based on the second timestamp minus the first timestamp and the residence time;

calculating a distance between the first terminal and the second terminal based on the roundtrip time;

repeatedly measuring a doppler effect through a periodic sequence of range measurements; and

using the doppler effect measurements to compute a corrected range.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first and second terminals communicate over an optical communications channel.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise:

adjusting one or more communication parameters on the first terminal based on the calculated range.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the timestamps are generated on a physical layer of a communications protocol.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein a header of the range request message comprises a range request flag and the method further comprises:

queueing or prioritizing, by the second terminal, the range response for transmission to the first terminal; and

transmitting, by the second terminal, the range response to the first terminal.

16. The system of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise:

sending a message prior to the range request comprising a range request flag;

queueing or prioritizing, by the second terminal after receiving the range request and in response to the range request flag, the range response for transmission to the first terminal; and

transmitting, by the second terminal, the range response to the first terminal.

17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise:

calculating relative motion between the first and second terminals; and

applying a correction to the calculated range based on the relative motion, wherein the correction is made by obtaining two sets of range measurements and computing the difference in range divided by the time interval between the two measurements.

18. A system comprising:

a first communications terminal in communication with

a second communications terminal over a line-of-sight communications channel, wherein the first and second communications terminals are independently in motion with respect to each other and have unsynchronized timing domains, and the terminals are satellites;

wherein the first communications terminal:

transmits a range request to the second terminal;

stores a first timestamp in memory corresponding to a time at which the range request message was transmitted;

receives, from the second communications terminal, a range response to the range request, the range response including a residence time that characterizes an amount of time the second communications terminal required to send the range response after receiving the range request;

stores a second timestamp in memory corresponding to a time at which the range response was received;

calculates a roundtrip time for the range request and range response based on the second timestamp minus the first timestamp and the residence time; and

calculates a distance between the first communications terminal and the second communications terminal based on the roundtrip time;

repeatedly measures a doppler effect through a periodic sequence of range measurements; and

uses the doppler effect measurements to compute a corrected range.