AERIAL VEHICLE MANAGEMENT FOR AN AERONAUTICAL COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

• US 20190052349A1
• Filed: 02/13/2017
• Published: 02/14/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aeronet Global Communications Labs DAC
• Original Assignee: Aeronet Global Communications Labs DAC
• Inventors: RUSSELL, Brian, FARRELL, Ronan
• Granted Patent: US 10,560,181 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0039 Modification of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18504 Aircraft used as relay or high altitude atmospheric platform
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/18 Network planning tools
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/46 for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V]

Abstract

The invention provides a system and method of providing service coverage for the provision of data services to a target aircraft comprising the step of configuring one or more other aircraft in an area at a specific time such that the data services can be provided via a radio or communication link to the target aircraft via the one or more other aircraft; and predicting a data services requirement in an area and configuring a pattern of communication links with the one or more other aircraft and the target aircraft to maintain the predicted data services.

Claims

1. A method of providing service coverage for the provision of data services to a target aircraft comprising:

configuring one or more other aircraft in an area at a specific time such that the data services can be provided via a radio or communication link to the target aircraft via the one or more other aircraft; and

predicting a data services requirement in the area and configuring a pattern of communication links with the one or more other aircraft and the target aircraft to maintain the predicted data services.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sharing bandwidth from the one or more other aircraft, obtained from a terrestrial or satellite link, with said target aircraft via an aircraft to aircraft link.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

altering a flight path of the one or more other aircraft to maintain the data services on the target aircraft in response to said predicted data services requirement.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

positioning an aircraft with a terrestrial link in the vicinity of an area of poor data services coverage and sharing the bandwidth from the terrestrial link to the target aircraft within the area of poor data services coverage via its aircraft-to-aircraft data link.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the aircraft is positioned in response to the calculated predicted service requirement.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a data usage profile and a data services availability map for each part of a flight path for said target aircraft.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

generating a metric for a level of service to be provisioned for a plurality of points in said flight path.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

adjusting the level of service required to the target aircraft depending on the availability of one or more datalinks form the one or more other aircraft.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

configuring the pattern of communication links between a ground station and said target aircraft.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

implementing a policy constraints to limit the use of available data links.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

categorizing each aircraft as whether it can provide an aircraft-to-aircraft data link and calculating the data capacity of such a link.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating the coverage of a connection and for how long the coverage can be maintained in an area.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating the availability of aircraft with aircraft-to-aircraft communications and the available capacity for that aircraft which is in excess of the needs of that aircraft.

14. (canceled)

15. A network management system configured to provide service coverage for the provision of data services to a target aircraft comprising:

a module adapted for configuring one or more other aircraft in an area at a specific time such that the data services can be provided via a radio or communication link to the target aircraft via the one or more other aircraft; and

a module configured to predict a data services requirement in an area and to configure a pattern of communication links with the one or more other aircraft and the target aircraft to maintain the predicted data services.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

a module for sharing bandwidth from the one or more other aircraft, obtained from a terrestrial or satellite link, with said target aircraft via an aircraft to aircraft link.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

a module for altering a flight path of the one or more other aircraft to maintain the data services on the target aircraft in response to said predicted data services requirement.

18. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

a module configured to position an aircraft with a terrestrial link in the vicinity of an area of poor data services coverage and to share the bandwidth from the terrestrial link to the target aircraft within the area of poor data services coverage via its aircraft-to-aircraft data link.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program instructions for providing data services to a target aircraft, including instructions for:

configuring one or more other aircraft in an area at a specific time such that the data services can be provided via a radio or communication link to the target aircraft via the one or more other aircraft; and

predicting a data services requirement in the area and configuring a pattern of communication links with the one or more other aircraft and the target aircraft to maintain the predicted data services.