Importance

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Abstract

A data communication system for a constellation of low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites (14a, 14b, . . . ) is disclosed. The data to be communicated is received by a transmitting ground terminal (50) either from one of a number of other networks (19a, 19b, . . . ) or an end user (17d, 17e, or 17f) in the form of data packets of varying lengths and protocols. Each data packet includes a header (41) and a payload (43). The header (41) contains address and other control information and the payload (43) contains the data to be communicated. The data packets are formatted by a formatting system (51) in the ground terminal (50) into standard data packets of uniform length having a standard header (65) and a standard payload (67). Upon receipt by an uplink satellite (54), the standard header (65) of the standard data packets is appended with data for system management to create asymmetric standard data packets having an asymmetric header (66) and standard payload (67). The appended databits are used for system management purposes, for example, to identify lost data packets and to advise ground terminal control programs if the route taken by a data packet through the satellite constellation is congested. The downlink satellite (56) removes the formerly appended data to create reproduced standard data packets. Upon receipt by a receiving ground terminal (60), reproduced standard data packets are deformatted by the deformatting system (61) located in the receiving ground terminal (60) to create the original data packets of varying lengths and protocols.

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First Claim