US 6,591,111 B1
Group radio communication system and method using interconnected radio sub-networksGeneral
US 6,591,111 B1
Group radio communication system and method using interconnected radio sub-networks
Tech Center:
2600 Communications
Examiner:
Dwayne Bost
Art Unit:
2681 Telemetry and Code Generation; Vehicles and System Alarms; Selective Communication; Dynamic Storage Systems; Mechanical parts of Disk Drives; Signal Processing and Control Processing in Disk Drives
Agent:
Inventors:
JONATHAN DAVID STOSZ; RHETT GARRETT HAYDEN; DEAN PAUL VANDEN HEUVEL; CHARLES JOSEPH GANUCHEAU; SCOTT DAVID BLANCHARD
Assignee:
Priority:
12/10/99
Filed:
12/10/99
Granted:
07/08/03
Expiration:
12/10/19
Abstract
A group radio communication system (20) includes a group controller (24) which communicates through a satellite-based packet switched data communication network (22) to converters (28). The converters (28) are located within radio coverage areas (36) of various radio sub-networks (26). Each radio sub-network (26) includes a base station (32), controller (30) and any number of subscriber radios. The controllers (30) manage point-to-multipoint communications between subscriber radios (34) within their radio sub-networks (26), and the group controller (24) manages point-to-multipoint communications between radio sub-networks (26). The converters (28) translate between protocols (38, 38′) established for communications within specific radio sub-networks (26) and a protocol (56) established for communication over the packet switched data communication network (22). The group controller (24) duplicates and distributes packets (118) originating in one radio sub-network (26) to other radio sub-networks (26).