Odyssey A satellite-based personal communication system

The 1992 World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC) opened a new era in mobile satellite communications by allocating a pair of new frequency bands to this service. Odyssey is a system being developed by TRW to provide worldwide personal communications in these bands. It will be based on a constellation of 12 satellites in medium altitude (5600 mni) orbits. The radiated power of the Odyssey satellites will be focused on regions of anticipated traffic demand. This will be accomplished by body-steering the satellite as it passes over a region so that the boresight of its body-fixed, user-link antennas remains pointed at the center of the region. One or more gateway stations within each region will provide an interface with the public switched telephone network. Odyssey will use code division multiple access (CDMA) in both the forward and return directions. This will permit spectrum sharing with other system operators that adopt a CDMA signal format. The satellite repeaters will be of the frequency translation type. The Odyssey personal telephone (PT) will be a dual-mode unit that is interchangeable between terrestrial (i.e., cellular) and satellite transmission. For a joint Odyssey/cellular subscriber, a cellular connection would be the initial choice, with Odyssey providing coverage extension.