Airborne Relays in Cooperative-MIMO Systems

• US 20170235316A1
• Filed: 07/25/2016
• Published: 08/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tybalt, LLC
• Original Assignee: Genghiscomm Holdings, LLC
• Inventors: Shattil, Steve
• Granted Patent: US 9,798,329 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/10 Rotorcrafts
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/20 for use as communications relays, e.g. high-altitude platforms
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/102 adapted for flying in formations
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/104 using satellite radio beacon positioning systems, e.g. GPS
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/20 Remote controls
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0088 characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours using knowledge based models G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/104 involving a plurality of aircrafts, e.g. formation flying traffic control systems for aircraft G08G5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/024 Co-operative use of antennas of several sites, e.g. in co-ordinated multipoint or co-operative multiple-input multiple-output [MIMO] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18504 Aircraft used as relay or high altitude atmospheric platform
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]

Abstract

An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) comprises a situational awareness system coupled to at least one onboard sensor and senses the location of other UAVs. A cooperative Radio Access Network (RAN)-signal processor is configured to process RAN signals cooperatively with at least one other UAV to increase the rank of the RAN channel and produce RAN performance criteria. A flight controller provides autonomous navigation control of the UAV'"'"'s flight based on the relative spatial locations of other UAVs and the RAN performance criteria, which operates within predetermined boundaries of navigation criteria. The UAV can employ mitigation tactics against one or more UEs identified as a threat and may coordinate other UAVs to conduct such mitigations.

Claims

1. An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), comprising

a situational awareness system coupled to at least one onboard sensor and configured to determine at least one relative spatial location of at least one other UAV;

a cooperative Radio Access Network (RAN) signal processor configured to process RAN signals in a UAV-User Equipment (UE) channel cooperatively with at least one other UAV to provide for increased rank of the UAV-UE channel and produce RAN performance criteria; and

a flight controller coupled to the situational awareness system and the cooperative RAN signal processor, and configured to employ autonomous navigation control of the UAV'"'"'s flight based at least on the at least one relative spatial location and the RAN performance criteria operating within predetermined boundaries of navigation criteria.

2. The UAV recited in claim 1, wherein the RAN performance criteria is employed as RAN mitigation criteria, and wherein the autonomous navigation control is configured to enhance RAN mitigation performance.

3. The UAV recited in claim 1, wherein the cooperative RAN signal processor comprises a cooperative multiple-input, multiple output processor.

4. The UAV recited in claim 1, wherein the cooperative RAN signal processor comprises a UAV fronthaul transceiver configured to provide for inter-UAV communications.

5. The UAV recited in claim 1, further comprising a fleet manager configured to operate the UAV as a cluster head.

6. The UAV recited in claim 5, wherein the fleet manager comprises at least one of a cluster manager, a sync manager, a MIMO processor, a scheduler, and a fronthaul network manager.

7. A system for controlling flight of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), comprising:

a plurality of UAVs, each including a processor executing a local flight control module and a cooperative Radio Access Network (RAN) signal processing module, and further including memory accessible by the processor for use by the local flight control module;

wherein, during flight operations, each local flight control module autonomously controls its UAV'"'"'s flight based at least partially on relative spatial location of at least one other of the plurality of UAVs, navigation criteria stored in the memory, and RAN performance criteria operating within boundaries of the navigation criteria, wherein the RAN performance criteria is derived from RAN channel measurements produced by the cooperative RAN signal processing module in each of the plurality of UAVs.

8. The system recited in claim 7, wherein the RAN performance criteria is employed as RAN mitigation criteria wherein each of the plurality of UAVs is configured to perform RAN mitigation, and wherein the each local flight control module autonomously controls its UAV'"'"'s flight to enhance RAN mitigation performance.

9. The system recited in claim 7, wherein the RAN performance criteria comprise navigation parameters determined to reduce a RAN channel matrix condition number.

10. The system recited in claim 7, wherein the each local flight control module is further configured to enhance energy-efficient operation of its UAV.

11. The system recited in claim 7, wherein at least one cooperative RAN signal processing module comprises a cooperative multiple-input, multiple output module.

12. The system recited in claim 7, wherein at least one of the UAVs in the plurality of UAVs comprises a fleet manager configured to operate as a UAV cluster head.

13. The system recited in claim 7, wherein the fleet manager comprises at least one of a cluster manager, a sync manager, a MIMO processor, a scheduler, and a fronthaul network manager.

14. A method for controlling an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operating in a cluster of UAVs, comprising

employing onboard sensors to determine a relative spatial location with respect to at least one other UAV;

processing Radio Access Network (RAN) signals in a UAV-User Equipment (UE) channel cooperatively with at least one other UAV to provide for increased rank of the UAV-UE channel and produce RAN performance criteria;

employing inter-UAV communications to enable the cluster of UAVs to communicate with each other; and

employing autonomous navigation control to control the UAV'"'"'s flight based at least partially on the relative spatial location, navigation criteria boundaries, and the RAN performance criteria operating within predetermined boundaries of the navigation criteria boundaries.

15. The method recited in claim 14, further comprising configuring the processing to include performing RAN mitigation against at least one target UE, and wherein the RAN performance criteria is employed as RAN mitigation criteria, and wherein the autonomous navigation control provides for autonomously controlling the UAV'"'"'s flight to enhance RAN mitigation performance.

16. The method recited in claim 14, wherein the RAN performance criteria comprise navigation parameters determined to reduce a RAN channel matrix condition number.

17. The method recited in claim 14, wherein processing comprises cooperative multiple-input, multiple output (MIMO) processing coordinated with at least one other UAV.

18. The method recited in claim 14, further comprising transmitting at least one of the RAN signals, processed RAN signals, and the RAN performance criteria to a centralized processor configured to perform cooperative MIMO processing.

19. The method recited in claim 14, further comprising performing fleet management of the cluster, wherein fleet management comprises at least one of assigning UAVs to the cluster, synchronizing UAVs in the cluster, performing centralized processing of RAN signals processed by other UAVs in the cluster, scheduling, and performing network management of a fronthaul network connecting UAVs in the cluster.

20. The method recited in claim 14, wherein employing autonomous navigation control is configured to enhance energy-efficient operation of the UAV.