Measurement, collection, distribution and reporting of atmospheric data

• US 7,856,228 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2006
• Issued: 12/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Borges, Mark Daniel, Lekutai, Gaviphat
• Primary Examiner(s): MEHRPOUR, NAGHMEH
• Application Number:
  US11/365,942
• Publication Number:
  US 20080019299A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,757 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 455/456.3, 455/456.4, 455/456.5, 455/414.1, 455/414.2, 455/404.1, 455/12.1, 455/414.3, 455/3.01, 370/328, 342/357.06, 340/905, 340/539.28, 340/7.48, 340/601, 340/602, 340/825.46
• US Class Current: 455/414.3
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 2203/00 Application of thermometers in cryogenics
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/02 Instruments for indicating weather conditions by measuring two or more variables, e.g. humidity, pressure, temperature, cloud cover or wind speed G01W1/10 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

For improved reliability and relevancy of reporting of atmospheric condition data, faster access to the data, and more geographically granular collection of data, data pertaining to atmospheric conditions is measured at network towers, collected, managed, distributed and presented according to a requested service. Weather data is measured and collected at a granularity greater than previously existing systems by communicatively coupling and generally co-locating weather or atmospheric measuring instruments to existing mobile network towers, and collecting and distributing the data as part of enhanced services for end users. Accordingly, when weather data is collected from the measuring instruments placed on network towers according to the present invention, and aggregated at one or more servers, the weather data may be distributed to end users of the communications networks with greater relevancy. Any of the voice/data, control and broadcast channels of an applicable mobile communications network may be utilized.

Claims

1. A communications network structure for transmitting communications data, comprising:

a transceiver for at least transmitting data to one or more portable devices communicatively coupled to the transceiver;

a network tower for elevating and stabilizing the transceiver;

at least one atmospheric condition measuring instrument coupled to the network tower that measures an atmospheric condition associated with an atmosphere surrounding the communications network structure yielding measured data and transmits the measured data to at least one atmospheric condition recording device located on, at or nearby the network tower; and

wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit, in response to receiving a request for atmospheric information from at least one of the one or more portable devices, the measured data to the at least one of the one or more portable devices.

2. A communications network structure according to claim 1, wherein the at least one atmospheric condition measuring instrument includes a thermometer.

3. A communications network structure according to claim 1, wherein the at least one atmospheric condition measuring instrument includes at least one of an anemometer, an aerometer, a web bulb thermometer, a thermometer, a barometer, a ceilometer or a pollution measuring instrument.

4. A communications network structure according to claim 1, wherein the network tower comprises a plurality of supports, and the at least one atmospheric condition measuring instrument is attached to at least one support of the plurality of supports.

5. A communications network structure according to claim 4, wherein the at least one atmospheric condition measuring instrument is elevated a predetermined distance relative to the ground to avoid boundary layer effects.

6. A communications network structure according to claim 5, wherein the at least one atmospheric condition measuring instrument is elevated at least 10 meters relative to the ground.

7. A method for collecting weather condition data in a mobile communications network comprising a plurality of communications network towers, comprising:

providing at least one atmospheric condition measuring instrument coupled to each of the plurality of communications network towers;

for each of the plurality of communications network towers, measuring with the at least one atmospheric condition measuring instrument at least one atmospheric condition associated with an atmosphere surrounding the respective communications network towers;

based on the measuring, storing weather condition data by at least one atmospheric condition data recording device coupled to one or more of the plurality of communications network towers;

receiving a request for a subset of the weather condition data from at least one mobile device; and

transmitting the subset of the weather condition data to the at least one mobile device.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein the measuring includes measuring temperature with a thermometer.

9. A method according to claim 7, wherein the measuring includes at least one of measuring wind speed with an anemometer, measuring air density or weight with an aerometer, measuring dew point temperature with a web bulb thermometer, measuring barometric pressure with a barometer, measuring cloud cover/height with a ceilometer, or measuring phytotoxic air pollution with a bryometer.

10. A method according to claim 7, wherein the providing includes attaching at least one atmospheric condition measuring instrument to at least one support of the plurality of communications network towers.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein the providing includes elevating the at least one atmospheric condition measuring instrument to a predetermined distance relative to the ground to avoid boundary layer effects.

12. A method according to claim 7, further comprising transmitting the weather condition data to at least one intermediate weather measurement recording device prior to transmitting the weather condition data to at least one weather station node.

13. A computer readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions for performing measurement, storage and transmission of data according to claim 7.

14. A method for displaying weather condition data via a portable device connected to a wireless communications wide area network, comprising:

connecting the portable device to the wireless communications wide area network;

determining a closest communications network tower of a plurality of communications network towers to which the portable device is physically located;

receiving weather condition data, measured at the closest communications network tower and stored at a weather station node of the wireless communications wide area network, by the portable device via at least one of a control channel, a voice channel, an SMS broadcast or a broadcast channel of the wireless communications wide area network; and

displaying the weather condition data via a display of the portable device.

15. A method according to claim 14, further comprising activating a weather service of the portable device by the user of the portable device, thereby initiating the determining, receiving and displaying.

16. A method according to claim 14, wherein the determining, receiving and displaying occurs at the request of the user of the portable device.

17. A method according to claim 14, wherein the receiving includes receiving the weather condition data by the portable device periodically.

18. A method according to claim 14, wherein the receiving includes receiving the weather condition data by the portable device based at least partially on a dynamic determination of network bandwidth availability.

19. A method according to claim 14, wherein the receiving includes receiving temperature data, the temperature data measured at the closest communications network tower and stored at the weather station node of the wireless communications wide area network, by the portable device.

20. A method according to claim 14, wherein the portable device is a cell phone.

21. A computer readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 14.

22. A communications network tower in a network comprising a plurality of communications network towers, the communications network tower for transmitting communications data to and from portable devices connected to the network, comprising:

a transceiver element which transmits and receives the communications data via the network;

the communications network tower which elevates and stabilizes the transceiver element;

at least one atmospheric condition measuring instrument located on, at or near the network tower that measures an atmospheric condition associated with the atmosphere surrounding the network tower, yielding measured data, and transmits the measured data to at least one atmospheric condition recording device located on, at or nearby the network tower; and

wherein the transceiver element is configured to transmit the measured data to a portable device, in response to a request from the portable device.

23. A network tower according to claim 22, wherein the at least one atmospheric condition measuring instrument includes a thermometer.

24. A network tower according to claim 22, wherein the at least one atmospheric condition measuring instrument includes at least one of an anemometer, an aerometer, a web bulb thermometer, a thermometer, a barometer, a ceilometer or a pollution measuring instrument.

25. A network tower according to claim 22, wherein the network tower comprises a plurality of supports, and the at least one atmospheric condition measuring instrument is attached to at least one support of the plurality of supports.

26. A network tower according to claim 25, wherein the at least one atmospheric condition measuring instrument is elevated a predetermined distance relative to the ground to avoid boundary layer effects.

27. A network tower according to claim 26, wherein the at least one atmospheric condition measuring instrument is elevated at least 10 meters relative to the ground.

28. A method for displaying weather condition data via a portable device, comprising:

wirelessly connecting the portable device to a communications network tower when the portable device is within communications range of the communications network tower;

receiving weather condition data, measured at the communications network tower and stored at a weather station server communicatively coupled to the communications network tower, by the portable device via at least one of a control channel, a voice channel, an SMS broadcast and a broadcast channel; and

displaying the weather condition data via a display of the portable device.

29. A method according to claim 28, further comprising activating a weather service of the portable device by a user of the portable device, thereby initiating at least the receiving and displaying.

30. A method according to claim 28, wherein the wirelessly connecting, receiving and displaying occur at the request of a user of the portable device for the weather condition data.

31. A method according to claim 28, wherein the receiving includes receiving the weather condition data by the portable device periodically.

32. A method according to claim 28, wherein the receiving includes receiving the weather condition data by the portable device based at least partially on a dynamic determination of the priority of the weather condition data relative to other tasks being performed at the same time.

33. A method according to claim 28, wherein the receiving includes receiving temperature data, the temperature data measured at the communications network tower and stored at the weather station server, by the portable device via at least one of a control channel, a voice channel, an SMS broadcast or a broadcast channel.

34. A method according to claim 28, wherein the portable device is a cell phone.

35. A computer readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 28.

36. A method for displaying weather condition data, comprising:

connecting a first portable device to a second portable device via a communications network;

requesting, by the first portable device, weather condition data pertaining to the second portable device, the weather condition data having been measured at a communications network tower of the communications network near the second portable device, stored at a weather station server of the communications network;

receiving, by the first portable device, the requested weather condition data from the second portable device via at least one of a control channel, a voice channel, an SMS broadcast or a broadcast channel of the communications network; and

displaying the weather condition data via a display of the first portable device.

37. A method according to claim 36, further comprising:

waiting for a user of the second portable device to authorize the receiving of the requested weather condition data prior to initiating the receiving.

38. A method according to claim 36, wherein the requesting and receiving occur automatically after the connecting.

39. A method according to claim 36, further comprising activating a weather service of the first portable device by the user of the first portable device, thereby initiating at least the requesting, receiving and displaying.

40. A method according to claim 36, wherein the requesting includes requesting, by the first portable device, temperature data stored on the second portable device, the temperature data having been measured at a communications network tower of the communications network near the second portable device, stored at a weather station server of the communications network, and transmitted to the second portable device via the communications network.

41. A method according to claim 36, wherein the first portable device is a cell phone.

42. A computer readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 36.