Amazon.com, Inc.
System for low-latency satellite subbeam handover

Abstract:

Satellites provide communication between devices such as user terminals and gateways to other networks, such as the Internet. Non-geosynchronous orbit satellites move relative to user terminals, passing in and out of communication over time. The user terminal itself may also move. Each satellite maintains a plurality of subbeams, each directed towards a different area on the Earth for a portion of an orbit. Based on a predicted location for the user terminal, a handover from a first subbeam to a second subbeam is determined. To minimize disruption due to the handover, communication resources associated with the second subbeam are allocated and provided to the user terminal and the satellite in advance. At the handover time, if the user terminal is within a threshold distance of the predicted location, the user terminal may transition to using the second subbeam. Otherwise, the user terminal may continue to use the first subbeam.