Cellular communications with scheduled handoffs

Abstract From the Canadian patent

A cellular communications network includes satellites which project cells toward the earth. The satellites and cells move relative to the earth. When a call is being set up to a subscriber unit data, describing the subscriber unit's location are sent to a switching office of the network. The switching office generates a schedule which forecasts when movement of the cells will cause the subscriber unit to cross cell boundaries. During an ongoing call, the subscriber unit determines when scheduled boundary crossings occur. So long as an adequate signal is present in a scheduled cell and network capacity exists in the scheduled cell to handle the call, the call will be handed off to the …