TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK ROUTING

• US 20130218469A1
• Filed: 09/27/2011
• Published: 08/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Defence and Space Limited (Airbus SE)
• Original Assignee: Airbus Defence and Space Limited (Airbus SE)
• Inventors: Turton, Brian Charles Hargrave
• Granted Patent: US 9,671,229 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/533
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096811 where the route is computed offboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0026 located on the ground
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0043 Traffic management of multiple aircrafts from the ground G08G5/003 takes precedence; data processing specially designed for resource management, e.g. scheduling or allocating time, human or machine resources G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/12 Shortest path evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/123 Evaluation of link metrics techniques for monitoring network metrics H04L43/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service

Abstract

A network controller for controlling a telecommunications network (70) comprises a plurality of vehicles (250, 280, 330) each including a telecommunications device. The network controller comprises a network configuration database (20), containing data representing the configuration of the network (70); an assets database (30), containing for each vehicle (250, 280, 330) (i) data representing planned movements of the vehicle (250, 280, 330) and (ii) data representing parameters for acceptable variation in said route (260, 290, 350); and an information exchange requirement (IER) database (40), containing data representing expected future network loading. An optimisation engine (50) is configured to calculate a set of routes (260, 310, 350) for the vehicles (250, 280, 330) that optimises the availability of the telecommunications network (70) in the geographic area.

Claims

1. A network controller for controlling a telecommunications network comprising a plurality of vehicles each including a telecommunications device, the network controller comprising:

a network configuration database, containing data representing the configuration of the network;

an assets database, containing for each vehicle (i) data representing planned movements of the vehicle in a geographic area, the vehicle having a planned route from a first location to a second location, and (ii) data representing parameters for acceptable variation in said route;

an information exchange requirement (IER) database, containing data representing expected future network loading;

an optimisation engine configured to calculate from the data stored in the network configuration database, assets database and IER database, a set of routes for the vehicles that optimises, subject to the parameters for acceptable variation, the availability of the telecommunications network in the geographic area; and

a tasking-order dispatcher, configured to generate tasking orders for transmitting to the vehicles from the set of routes calculated by the optimisation engine.

2. A network controller according to claim 1, in which the network configuration database includes details of the network routing algorithm(s) used in the network.

3. A network controller according to claim 1, wherein the network configuration database includes details of network characteristics of the telecommunications devices included in the vehicles.

4. The A network controller according to claim 1, wherein the assets database includes predicted geographic locations of the vehicles, scheduled departure and arrival times, and/or predicted velocities.

5. The network controller according to claim 1, wherein the assets database includes acceptable variations in geographic locations of the vehicles, scheduled departure and arrival times, and/or predicted velocities.

6. The network controller according to claim 1, wherein the expected network loading data contained in the IER database includes data relating to the expected network loading requirements of a mobile operations team.

7. The network controller according to claim 1, in which the acceptable variation in the route is constrained by an operational limitation of the vehicle, for example one or more limitation selected from the group consisting of:

available fuel, available energy, available processing power, available memory, operational constraints, performance envelope, timescales, and type of communications capability provided.

8. A method of controlling a telecommunications network, the method comprising:

(1) receiving data concerning the configuration of the telecommunications network;

(2) receiving data concerning expected future telecommunications loads in a geographic area;

(3) receiving data concerning planned movements of a plurality of vehicles in the geographic area, each vehicle including a telecommunications device and having a planned route from a first location to a second location, and data concerning acceptable variation in said route; and

(4) optimising the availability of telecommunication connectivity in the geographic area by altering the planned route of at least one of the vehicles within the acceptable variation of that route.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, in which the data received concerning future telecommunications loads includes data concerning present telecommunications loads.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9, in which the data includes network statistics, for example link loading, error ratio, and/or delay.

11. The method as claimed in claim 8, in which the data received concerning future telecommunications loads includes data concerning future telecommunications needs of vehicles or individuals operating in the geographic area.

12. The method as claimed in claim 8, including the step of calculating expected network loads from the data concerning the future telecommunications needs and the data concerning present telecommunications loads.

13. The method as claimed in claim 8, including the step of updating one or more databases containing expected information exchange requirements and/or node locations, in view of the data received concerning future telecommunications loads.

14. The method as claimed in claim 8, in which the optimisation of the availability of telecommunication connectivity in the geographic area is achieved by optimisation of the network topology and node locations in view of all relevant constraints.

15. The method as claimed in claim 8, in which the planned route of at least one of the vehicles is altered by dispatching updated tasking orders that implement the altered route.

16. The method as claimed in claim 8, including repeating steps (1) to (3) of claim 8.

17. The method as claimed in claim 8, including the step of comparing the benefit of implementing the route alteration with the cost of changing the orders of the vehicle.