Terrestrial communications network suitable for providing air-to-ground connectivity
First Claim
1. A terrestrial communications network suitable for providing air-to-ground connectivity, comprising:
- a plurality of native cellular nodes configured to provide wireless communication connectivity to one or more ground-based wireless communication devices, each native cellular node including a base transceiver station (BTS) having one or more transceivers configured to transmit a downlink signal to the one or more ground-based wireless communication devices at a native downlink frequency and receive an uplink signal from the one or more ground-based wireless communications devices at a native uplink frequency; and
a plurality of augmented cellular nodes configured to provide wireless communication connectivity to one or more airborne communications devices, each augmented cellular node including an augmented BTS having one or more transceivers configured to transmit a downlink signal to the one or more airborne communications devices via one or more upwardly directed antennas at the native downlink frequency and receive an air-to-ground uplink signal from the one or more airborne communications devices at a selected air-to-ground uplink frequency, wherein at least one of the augmented cellular nodes includes one or more power amplifiers configured to amplify the downlink signal transmitted by an upwardly directed antenna such that the downlink signal emanating from the at least one augmented cellular node has a power level larger than a downlink signal emanating from at least one of the native cellular nodes, wherein the plurality of native cellular nodes and the plurality of augmented cellular nodes are configured to operate on a common backhaul infrastructure.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention includes a plurality of native cellular nodes configured to provide wireless connectivity to one or more ground-based wireless devices, each native node including a BTS having a transceiver configured to transmit a downlink signal to the ground-based devices at a native downlink frequency and receive an uplink signal from the ground-based devices at a native uplink frequency, a plurality of augmented nodes configured to provide connectivity to one or more airborne devices, each augmented node including an augmented BTS having a transceiver configured to transmit a downlink signal to the one or more airborne communications devices via an upwardly directed antenna at the native downlink frequency and receive an air-to-ground uplink signal from the airborne devices at a selected air-to-ground uplink frequency different from the native uplink signal frequency, wherein the native nodes and the augmented nodes are configured to operate on a common backhaul infrastructure.
15 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A terrestrial communications network suitable for providing air-to-ground connectivity, comprising:
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a plurality of native cellular nodes configured to provide wireless communication connectivity to one or more ground-based wireless communication devices, each native cellular node including a base transceiver station (BTS) having one or more transceivers configured to transmit a downlink signal to the one or more ground-based wireless communication devices at a native downlink frequency and receive an uplink signal from the one or more ground-based wireless communications devices at a native uplink frequency; and a plurality of augmented cellular nodes configured to provide wireless communication connectivity to one or more airborne communications devices, each augmented cellular node including an augmented BTS having one or more transceivers configured to transmit a downlink signal to the one or more airborne communications devices via one or more upwardly directed antennas at the native downlink frequency and receive an air-to-ground uplink signal from the one or more airborne communications devices at a selected air-to-ground uplink frequency, wherein at least one of the augmented cellular nodes includes one or more power amplifiers configured to amplify the downlink signal transmitted by an upwardly directed antenna such that the downlink signal emanating from the at least one augmented cellular node has a power level larger than a downlink signal emanating from at least one of the native cellular nodes, wherein the plurality of native cellular nodes and the plurality of augmented cellular nodes are configured to operate on a common backhaul infrastructure. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A wireless network communication node suitable for integration in a wireless communications network, comprising:
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an augmented base transceiver station (BTS), the augmented BTS including one or more transceivers; one or more upwardly oriented antennas communicatively coupled to the one or more transceivers, the one or more transceivers configured to transmit a downlink signal to one or more airborne communication devices via the one or more upwardly oriented antennas at a downlink frequency; and one or more power amplifiers configured to amplify the downlink signal such that the downlink signal emanating from the one or more upwardly oriented antennas has a power level larger than a native downlink signal emanating from one or more antennas of at least one native cellular node, the one or more transceivers further configured to receive an uplink signal from the one or more airborne communications devices via the one or more upwardly oriented antenna. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method for providing air-to-ground connectivity on a terrestrial wireless communications network, comprising:
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transmitting one or more native downlink signals to one or more ground-based wireless communication devices at a native downlink frequency; receiving one or more uplink signals from the one or more ground-based wireless communications devices at a native uplink frequency; transmitting one or more air-to-ground downlink signals to one or more airborne communications devices via one or more upwardly directed antennas at the native downlink frequency; amplifying the one or more air-to-ground downlink signals such that the one or more air-to-ground downlink signals have a power level larger than the one or more native downlink signals transmitted to one or more ground-based wireless communication devices; and receiving one or more uplink signals from the one or more airborne communications devices at a selected air-to-ground uplink frequency different from the native uplink frequency.
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Specification