Maintaining antenna connectivity based on communicated geographic information

• US 10,090,909 B2
• Filed: 02/24/2017
• Issued: 10/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company (Hyundai Motor Group), Kia Corp.
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Peitzer, Haywood S., Mustafic, Damir, Wolters, II, James A., Walsh, Matthew, Becker, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): VO, NGUYEN THANH
• Application Number:
  US15/442,527
• Publication Number:
  US 20180248613A1
• Time in Patent Office: 585 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/12 of transmit antennas, e.g. of the amplitude or phase
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/10 using broadcasted information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination

Abstract

Example methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media) to facilitate maintaining of antenna connectivity based on communicated geographic information are disclosed. An example method may include receiving, by a device, position information from a base station. The position information may include an altitude associated with the base station. The method may further include determining a positional difference between the device and the base station based at least on the position information. The method may further include configuring an antenna of the device based at least on the positional difference.

Claims

1. A method to facilitate network connectivity for a device, the method comprising:

receiving, by the device, geographic information as part of one or more broadcast messages from a first base station, wherein the geographic information comprises position information and obstacle information, wherein the position information comprises an altitude associated with the first base station, wherein the position information is received in a first type of broadcast message associated with a first periodicity, wherein the obstacle information is received in a second type of broadcast message associated with a second periodicity different from the first periodicity, and wherein the one or more broadcast messages are receivable by user equipment within a receiving range of the first base station;

determining a first positional difference between the device and the first base station based at least on the position information; and

configuring an antenna of the device based at least on the first positional difference.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the device comprises an unmanned aerial vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of each of the one or more broadcast messages is encrypted.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the on or more broadcast messages comprises at least one of a master information block (MIB) or a system information block (SIB) message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first base station is a first cellular base station, the method further comprising:

receiving, from the first cellular base station by the device, position information associated with a second cellular base station;

determining a second positional difference between the device and the second cellular base station based at least on the position information associated with the second cellular base station; and

configuring the antenna of the device further based at least on the second positional difference.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving signals from each of a plurality of base stations that includes the first base station;

selecting one of the plurality of base stations based at least on a signal strength associated with the received signals;

determining a second positional difference between the device and the selected one of the plurality of base stations based at least on position information associated with the selected one of the plurality of base stations; and

configuring the antenna of the device to point at the selected one of the plurality of base stations further based at least on the second positional difference.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving, by the device from at least one of the plurality of base stations, second geographic information associated with the at least one of the plurality of base stations, wherein the second geographic information comprises at least one of second obstacle information, weather information, air traffic management information, or emergency broadcast information,

wherein the selecting is further based on the second geographic information.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a change in an orientation between the antenna of the device and an antenna of the first base station; and

adjusting at least one of a configuration of the antenna of the device or a flight path of the device based on the detected change.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring the antenna comprises:

selecting one of a plurality of directional antennas of the device based on the determined first positional difference; and

/or

adjusting an orientation of the antenna based on the determined first positional difference.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the device from the first base station, signal strength information indicative of signal strength statistics based on signals previously received by user equipment from the first base station at different altitude levels and/or in different frequency bands,

wherein;

the configuring is further based on the received signal strength information, and

the different altitude levels are relative to a reference level.

11. A device, comprising:

an antenna;

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory machine readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving, by the device, geographic information associated with a first base station as part of one or more broadcast messages from the first base station, wherein the geographic information comprises position information and obstacle information, wherein the position information is received in a first type of broadcast message associated with a first periodicity, and wherein the obstacle information is received in a second type of broadcast message associated with a second periodicity different from the first periodicity, and wherein the one or more broadcast messages are receivable by user equipment within a receiving range of the first base station;

determining a first positional difference between the device and the first base station based at least on the geographic information; and

configuring the antenna based at least on the first positional difference.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the device is an unmanned aerial vehicle, the operations further comprising:

receiving, by the device, at least a portion of the geographic information associated with the first base station as part of a broadcast message from a second base station.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the broadcast message comprises at least one of a master information block (MIB) or a system information block (SIB) message.

14. The device of claim 11, wherein:

the antenna is a directional antenna,

the device further comprises an omnidirectional antenna, and

the operations further comprise;

determining signal strength statistics associated with signals received from at least the first base station; and

switching from the directional antenna to the omnidirectional antenna when the signal strength statistics is below a threshold value.

15. The device of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, by the device, information indicative of obstacles in a coverage region associated with the first base station; and

configuring the antenna further based at least on the received information.

16. A tangible machine readable storage medium including machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause one or more processors of a device to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a first base station by the device, position information, an indication of a data channel, and signal strength information indicative of signal strength statistics based on signals previously received by user equipment from the first base station at different altitude levels and/or in different frequency bands, wherein the position information comprises an altitude associated with the first base station, and wherein the different altitude levels are relative to a reference level;

determining a first positional difference between the device and the first base station based at least on the position information and the indication; and

configuring an antenna of the device based at least on the first positional difference and the received signal strength information.

17. The tangible machine readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the device comprises an unmanned aerial vehicle, and wherein the position information and the indication are received as part of one or more broadcast messages from the first base station.

18. The tangible machine readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

accessing the data channel based on the indication; and

retrieving geographic information from the data channel,

wherein the first positional difference is based at least on the position information and the geographic information.

19. The tangible machine readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein configuring the antenna comprises switching the antenna from communicating on a first frequency band to communicating on a second frequency band based at least on the received signal strength information.

20. The tangible machine readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving obstacle information,

wherein;

the position information is received in a first type of broadcast message associated with a first periodicity, and

the obstacle information is received in a second type of broadcast message associated with a second periodicity different from the first periodicity.