Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) beam pointing and data rate optimization for high throughput broadband access
First Claim
1. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) broadband access system comprising:
- an antenna sub-system comprising at least one antenna aperture configured to form a plurality of beams toward a ground coverage area, where the plurality of beams are further subdivided into a plurality of groups of co-active beams;
wherein at least a portion of the plurality of groups of co-active beams are co-frequency;
a UAV radio sub-system comprising one or more transmitters and receivers and configured to transmit and receive signals to and from a set of ground terminals within the ground coverage area; and
wherein the UAV radio sub-system further comprises logic configured to;
assign at least one ground terminal in at least one beam to transmit during a given time slot;
estimate one or more UAV downlink beam gains for the at least one beam assigned to the at least one ground terminal based on one or more of;
one or more UAV position coordinates, one or more UAV orientations, and at least one ground terminal location;
determine an optimal downlink data rate for the at least one beam based at least in part of the estimated one or more UAV downlink beam gains; and
transmit downlink data packets to the assigned at least one ground terminal in the at least one beam based at least in part on the determined optimal downlink data rate.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods configured to form and manage different types of beams toward target ground terminals to “optimally” communicate with the terminals. In one set of embodiments, the UAV generates a set of beams to cover cells on the ground, the beams are divided into groups, and the UAV communications system deterministically and sequentially turns a subset of the beams on/off to reduce cross-beam interference and increase system throughput. In another embodiment, in order to increase throughput, the UAV communications system determines the highest data rate on the downlink and uplink that are decodable at the receiver given the received signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) while maintaining a low packet error rate. Systems and methods are described to determine the UAV antenna pattern toward different terminals needed for SINR calculation and data rate determination.
134 Citations
18 Claims
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1. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) broadband access system comprising:
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an antenna sub-system comprising at least one antenna aperture configured to form a plurality of beams toward a ground coverage area, where the plurality of beams are further subdivided into a plurality of groups of co-active beams; wherein at least a portion of the plurality of groups of co-active beams are co-frequency; a UAV radio sub-system comprising one or more transmitters and receivers and configured to transmit and receive signals to and from a set of ground terminals within the ground coverage area; and wherein the UAV radio sub-system further comprises logic configured to; assign at least one ground terminal in at least one beam to transmit during a given time slot; estimate one or more UAV downlink beam gains for the at least one beam assigned to the at least one ground terminal based on one or more of;
one or more UAV position coordinates, one or more UAV orientations, and at least one ground terminal location;determine an optimal downlink data rate for the at least one beam based at least in part of the estimated one or more UAV downlink beam gains; and transmit downlink data packets to the assigned at least one ground terminal in the at least one beam based at least in part on the determined optimal downlink data rate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for receiving data packets in a UAV broadband access system, comprising:
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forming at least one beam toward a ground coverage area; measuring an uplink signal estimate of received signals on the formed at least one beam; determining an optimal uplink data rate that can be decoded on the uplink based on the measured uplink signal estimate and at least one criteria; and receiving uplink data packets on the formed at least one beam based at least in part on the determined optimal uplink data rate. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
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15. A ground terminal apparatus configured to communicate with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) broadband access system, the ground terminal apparatus comprising:
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a radio transceiver configured to transmit and receive signals to and from the UAV; a processor coupled to the radio transceiver; and logic configured to; determine one or more beams that are associated with the UAV; determine one or more time slots that are assigned for transmission; transmit one or more reference signals according to the determined one or more time slots and determined one or more beams; measure a downlink signal estimate of received signals on a downlink; determine an optimal downlink data rate that can be decoded on the downlink based on the measured downlink signal estimate and at least one criteria; receive downlink data packets based at least in part on the determined optimal downlink data rate; and wherein the transmitted one or more reference signals are associated with the UAV. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
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Specification