Importance

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Abstract

The Satellite Communication System disclosed in the specification is a dynamic constellation (C) of satellites (S). The present invention is capable of offering continuous voice, data and video service to customers across the globe on the land, on the sea, or in the air. The preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a low Earth orbit satellite system that includes 40 spacecraft (S) traveling in each of 21 orbital planes at an altitude of 700 km (435 miles). This relatively large number of satellites employed by the preferred embodiment was selected to provide continuous coverage of the Earth's surface at a high minimum mask angle (1230a) of forty degrees. Each of the individual 840 spacecraft (S) functions as an independent sovereign switch of equal rank which knows the position of its neighbors, and independently handles traffic without ground control. The satellites (S) are capable of transporting calls to millions of customers using portable (P), mobile (M) and fixed (F) residential and business terminals, and gateways (G) to public phone networks. The constellation uses the 20 and 30 GHz frequency bands for communications between Earth and the constellation (C), and the 60 GHz band for communicating among the satellites (S). The present invention is designed to support in excess of 2,000,000 simultaneous connections, representing over 20,000,000 users at typical business usage levels, and over 350 billion minutes of use per year. Only a system such as the preferred embodiment, which utilizes 840 satellites at a preferred minimum mask angle of forty degrees, can accomplish these challenging objectives.

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First Claim