Multi-airplane cellular communications system
First Claim
1. A communications link for the cellular communications system, comprising:
- a first airplane for flying in a first pattern and including a first antenna for transmitting RF beams to form a first footprint on a first target geographic area to provide cellular phone users within the footprint with a first communications link said second footprint at least partially overlapping said first footprint;
a second airplane for flying in a second pattern and including a second antenna for transmitting RF beams to form a second footprint on a second target geographic area to provide cellular phone users within the second footprint with a second communications link;
said first and second airplane configured to fly in the first and second patterns at an altitude less than approximately fifty thousand (50,000) feet;
said first and second patterns being varied to enable the first and second airplane to provide continuous uninterrupted coverage via first and second beam patterns, respectively, to a service area below in a weather pattern-independent and geographic feature-independent manner.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A communications link for a cellular communications system (10) includes a first airplane (35) for flying in a first pattern (86) and including a first antenna for transmitting RF beams (92) to form a first footprint (96) on a first target geographic area (98) to provide cellular phone users (18) within the footprint with a first communications link. A second airplane (35′) flies in a second pattern (86) and includes a second antenna for transmitting RF beams (92) to form a second footprint (96) on a second target geographic area (98) to provide cellular phone users (18) within the second footprint with a second communications link. The first and second airplanes each fly at an altitude that is below a high altitude level and that is varied to enable continuous uninterrupted coverage to be provided to a service area below in a weather pattern-independent and geographic feature-independent manner.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. A communications link for the cellular communications system, comprising:
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a first airplane for flying in a first pattern and including a first antenna for transmitting RF beams to form a first footprint on a first target geographic area to provide cellular phone users within the footprint with a first communications link said second footprint at least partially overlapping said first footprint; a second airplane for flying in a second pattern and including a second antenna for transmitting RF beams to form a second footprint on a second target geographic area to provide cellular phone users within the second footprint with a second communications link; said first and second airplane configured to fly in the first and second patterns at an altitude less than approximately fifty thousand (50,000) feet; said first and second patterns being varied to enable the first and second airplane to provide continuous uninterrupted coverage via first and second beam patterns, respectively, to a service area below in a weather pattern-independent and geographic feature-independent manner. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An airborne link for a cellular communications system, comprising:
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a first airplane configured to fly in a first pattern at a first altitude less than approximately fifty thousand (50,000) feet and configured to transmit RF beams to provide communications coverage within a first beam footprint covering a specified geographic area; and a second airplane configured to replace the first airplane at an end of a mission of the first airplane by establishing a second flight pattern at a second altitude less than approximately fifty thousand (50,000) feet and a second beam footprint that enables call switchover in a manner that minimizes dropped calls, wherein the first and second flight patterns are substantially parallel flight patterns and substantially 180°
out-of-phase flight patterns. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of switching calls over from an original airplane-based communications link in a cellular communications system to a replacement airplane-based communications link, comprising:
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maintaining a first airplane in a first flight pattern at an altitude less than approximately fifty thousand feet (50,000) to provide continuous coverage over a designated geographic area through a first communications link; flying a second airplane up to a predetermined flight pattern having a predetermined altitude less than approximately fifty thousand feet (50,000) to establish a second communications link over the designated geographic area; moving calls carried on the first communications link to the second communications link according to predetermined switchover protocol; and flying the first airplane out of the first flight pattern after all of the calls have been switched over to the second communication link. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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20. A method of providing cellular communications coverage using an airplane based antenna array, comprising:
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establishing cellular communications coverage over a predetermined geographic area via a first generally circular flight pattern with an outer point thereof being tangential to a circumscribing flight pattern circle having a radius larger than that of the first flight pattern; if a weather pattern affects the communications coverage, moving from the first flight pattern along the circumscribing flight pattern circle until a new operating point corresponding to a point of an alternate flight pattern that is tangential to the circumscribing flight pattern is reached; and executing the alternate flight pattern having a radius similar to the first flight pattern to maintain the cellular communication coverage over the predetermined geographic area. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification