Satellite cluster system
View Patent ↗A satellite cluster system may comprise: at least one slave satellite; a master satellite sharing a control signal and an information signal with the at least one slave satellite through an inter-satellite link; and a terrestrial control system for adjusting positions of the master satellite and the at least one slave satellite and transmitting the control signal and the information signal to the master satellite.
1 . A satellite cluster system comprising:
at least one slave satellite;
a master satellite sharing a control signal and an information signal with the at least one slave satellite through an inter-satellite link; and
a terrestrial control system for adjusting positions of the master satellite and the at least one slave satellite and transmitting the control signal and the information signal to the master satellite, wherein
the satellite cluster system supports cooperative multi-point (COMP) or carrier aggregation (CA),
when a condition that a link transmission capacity between the master satellite and the at least one slave satellite is equal to or greater than a first threshold is satisfied and a condition that a transmission latency between the master satellite and the at least one slave satellite is less than a second threshold is satisfied,
the master satellite is configured to support upper functions of a physical (PHY) layer and the at least one slave satellite is configured to support lower functions of the PHY layer,
the master satellite supports at least one of a general packet radio service tunneling protocol user (GTP-U) layer, a user datagram protocol (UDP) layer, an Internet protocol (IP) layer, a satellite radio interface (SRI) layer, a service data adaption protocol (SDAP) layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer or the upper functions of a PHY layer, and
the at least one slave satellite includes a first slave satellite and a second slave satellite, each of the first slave satellite and the second slave satellite supports the lower functions of the PHY layer, including at least one of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation/demodulation function, a resource element (RE) mapping/demapping function, or a radio frequency (RF) function.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the inter-satellite link comprises a radio frequency communication or a visual light communication.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the master satellite and the at least one slave satellite have an identical altitude and form a cluster area in a shape of a spherical cap, the master satellite is positioned at a center of the cluster area, and the master satellite and each slave satellite have an equal distance therebetween.
4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the master satellite and the at least one slave satellite have an identical altitude and form a cluster area in a shape of a spherical cap, the master satellite is positioned at a center of the cluster area, the at least one slave satellite is uniformly distributed in the cluster area, and the master satellite and each slave satellite have a different distance therebetween.
5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the master satellite and the at least one slave satellite have a different altitude and form a cluster area in a shape of a circular band.
6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the master satellite and the at least one slave satellite have a different altitude and form a cluster area in a shape of a spherical shell.
7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the master satellite and the at least one slave satellite provide a terminal with a signal using a joint transmission (JT) method or a dynamic point selection (DPS) method, as the cooperative multi-point (CoMP) communication technology.