UAV cellular communication service delivery

• US 9,866,313 B1
• Filed: 12/14/2016
• Issued: 01/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Murphy, Sean Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Trinh, Tan H
• Application Number:
  US15/378,045
• Time in Patent Office: 391 Days
• Field of Search: 455406, 4554042, 455431, 4554565, 455450, 4554521, 455453, 4554561, 455 412, 455 131, 455512, 455524, 4555521, 455442, 455436, 455 111, 455297, 701 2, 701302, 701 96, 701486, 244135 R, 244 10, 370316, 370315, 34087002
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/20 for use as communications relays, e.g. high-altitude platforms
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/23 for providing telephone services
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/003 Flight plan management
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0034 Assembly of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0043 Traffic management of multiple aircrafts from the ground G08G5/003 takes precedence; data processing specially designed for resource management, e.g. scheduling or allocating time, human or machine resources G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/006 in accordance with predefined flight zones, e.g. to avoid prohibited zones
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0069 specially adapted for an unmanned aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0086 for monitoring terrain radar or analogous systems specially adapted for terrain avoidance G01S13/935
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0091 for monitoring atmospheric conditions radar or analogous systems specially adapted for meteorological use G01S13/95; meteorology G01W
• 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 16/26 Cell enhancers or enhancement, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems

Abstract

The use of UAV network cells may enable a wireless communication carrier to provide supplemental cellular network communication coverage to geographical areas. Geolocations of multiple user devices in a geographical area that is serviced by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) network cell may be determined. Subsequently, operation condition data for the geographical area that affect at least one of UAV flight or UAV communication signal transmission or reception for the UAV network cell may be received. Accordingly, a flight trajectory that provides network coverage to one or more specific user devices in the geographical area may be generated based on the geolocations of the multiple user devices and the operation condition data. A control command is then sent to the UAV network cell to direct the UAV network cell to travel according to the flight trajectory.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory having instructions stored therein, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

determining geolocations of a plurality of user devices in a geographical area that is serviced by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) network cell, the UAV network cell extending network coverage of a wireless carrier network to at least a portion of the geographical area;

sending a control command to the UAV network cell that dispatches the UAV network cell to travel according to a flight trajectory that provides network coverage to one or more specific user devices of the plurality user devices in the geographical area based on the geolocations of the plurality of user devices, the UAV network cell using a backhaul of a ground network cell to route communication of the one or more specific user devices to a core network of the wireless carrier network

receiving a first signal robustness value for the ground network cell and a second signal robustness value for a particular network cell that is proximate to the ground network cell from a user device that is communicating with the ground network cell, the second signal robustness value being greater than the first signal robustness value;

sending a command that directs the user device to switch from communicating with the ground network cell to communicating with the particular network cell in response to determining that the particular network cell is an additional UAV network cell that is not using the backhaul of the ground network cell to route communication of any user devices to the core network; and

refraining from sending the command that directs the user device to switch from communicating with the ground network cell to communicating with the particular network cell in response to determining that the particular network cell is the UAV network cell that is using the backhaul of the ground network cell to route communication to the core network, despite the first and second robustness values indicating that the UAV network cell provides a stronger communication signal to the user device than the ground network cell.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the acts further comprise:

receiving a request to provide network coverage for the geographical area, the request being manually inputted by a user or initiated by a fault detection software that detected a failure in a base station of the wireless carrier network; and

sending an additional control command that dispatches the UAV network cell to the geographical area in response to determining at least that a ground vehicle for providing the network coverage is not deployable to the geographical area or not deployable to the geographical area in a predetermined amount of time.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the sending the additional control command includes sending the additional control command further in response the operation condition data indicating that the UAV is deployable to the geographical area.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the operation condition data includes one or more of meteorological data for the geographical area, flight performance and communication specification data for the UAV network cell, terrain data for the geographical area, flight schedule data for aircraft that traverses the geographical area, flight plan data for aircraft that traverse the geographical area, governmental flight regulation data for the geographical area, or governmental flight restriction data for the geographical area.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the refraining further comprises refraining from sending the command in response to determining that the particular network cell is the UAV network cell that is using the backhaul of the ground network cell to route communication to the core network and a difference between the second signal robustness value and the first signal robustness value does not exceed a maximum difference value.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the acts further comprise directing the UAV network cell to operate in a modified geographical area that is a portion of the geographical area, overlaps the geographical area, or is different from the geographical area in response to a modification to the geographical area.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the acts further comprise at least one of replacing or supplementing the UAV network cell with another UAV network cell in response to a trouble indication from the UAV network cell, or in response to an indication that communication capabilities of the UAV network cell are insufficient to sustain one or more quality of experience (QoE) metrics with respect to an audio communication quality or a video communication quality for the one or more specific user devices.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more specific user devices are located in a particular portion of the geographical area, further comprising dispatching another UAV network cell to provide the network coverage to the one or more specific user devices in response to the flight trajectory not enabling the UAV network cell to reach the particular portion of the geographical area due to a terrain feature or a structure.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more specific user devices includes a largest cluster of user devices, a selected group of user devices, or a particular group of one or more high priority user devices that belong to emergency responders.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the generating includes using a best fit algorithm to generate the flight trajectory that fits the UAV network cell within the geolocations of the one or more specific user devices.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the generating includes generating the flight trajectory based in part on operation condition data that indicate one or more of a natural or manmade structure in the geographical area that affects the flight trajectory, a terrain feature that blocks signal transmission, a weather phenomenon that the UAV network cell has to avoid, or a governmental flight regulation or flight restriction that forces an alteration of the flight trajectory.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the UAV network cell is a fixed wing aircraft, a rotary wing aircraft, a rigid buoyant gas airship, or a non-rigid buoyant gas airship.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein a geolocation of a user device of the plurality of user devices is provided by a global positioning system (GPS) component of the user device or triangulated for the user device from multiple signal robustness measurements provided by the user, the multiple signal robustness measurements being obtained by the user device for communication signals transmitted by the UAV network cell.

14. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that upon execution cause one or more processors to perform acts comprising:

dispatching an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) network cell to a geographical area in response to determining at least that a ground vehicle for providing network coverage of a wireless carrier network is not deployable to the geographical area due to the lack of roadways in the geographical area;

determining geolocations of a plurality of user devices in the geographical area that are serviced by the network cell, the UAV network cell extending the network coverage of the wireless carrier network to at least a portion of the geographical area;

receiving operation condition data for the geographical area that affect at least one of UAV flight or UAV communication signal transmission or reception for the UAV network cell;

generating a flight trajectory that provides network coverage to one or more specific user devices of the plurality user devices in the geographical area based on the geolocations of the plurality of user devices and the operation condition data; and

sending a control command to the UAV network cell that directs the UAV network cell to travel according to the flight trajectory.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein the operation condition data includes one or more of meteorological data for the geographical area, flight performance and communication specification data for the UAV network cell, terrain data for the geographical area, flight schedule data for aircraft that traverses the geographical area, flight plan data for aircraft that traverse the geographical area, governmental flight regulation data for the geographical area, or governmental flight restriction data for the geographical area.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein the UAV network cell is using a backhaul of a ground network cell to route user device communication to a core network of the wireless carrier network, and wherein the acts further comprise:

receiving a first signal robustness value for the ground network cell and a second signal robustness value for a particular network cell that is proximate to the ground network cell from a user device that is communicating with the ground network cell, the second signal robustness value being greater than the first signal robustness value;

sending a command that directs the user device to switch from communicating with the ground network cell to communicating with the particular network cell in response to determining that the particular network cell is a ground network cell or an additional UAV network cell that is different from the UAV network cell; and

refraining from sending the command that directs the user device to switch from communicating with the ground network cell to communicating with the particular network cell in response to determining that the particular network cell is the UAV network cell that is using the backhaul of the ground network cell to route communication to a core network of the wireless carrier network.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein the one or more specific user devices includes a largest cluster of user devices, a selected group of user devices, or a particular group of one or more high priority user devices that belong to emergency responders.

18. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a first signal robustness value for a ground network cell of a wireless carrier network from a user device that is communicating with the ground network cell, the ground network cell including a backhaul that routes user device communications of user devices to a core network of the wireless carrier network;

receiving a second signal robustness value for a particular network cell of the wireless carrier network that is proximate to the ground network cell from the user device, the second signal robustness value being greater than the first signal robustness value;

sending a command that directs the user device to switch from communicating with the ground network cell to communicating with the particular network cell in response to determining that the particular network cell is a UAV network cell that is not using a backhaul of the ground network cell to route communications of the user device to the core network of the wireless carrier network; and

refraining from sending the command that directs the user device to switch from communicating with the ground network cell to communicating with the network cell in response to determining that the particular network cell is a UAV network cell that is using the backhaul of the ground network cell to route communications of the user device to the core network of the wireless carrier network, and a difference between the second signal robustness value and the first signal robustness value does not exceed a maximum difference value.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein the difference between the second signal robustness value and the first signal robustness value exceeds a minimal difference value that is less than the maximum difference value.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, further comprising sending the command that directs the user device to switch from communicating with the ground network cell to communicating with the particular network cell in response to determining that the difference between the second signal robustness value and the first signal robustness value exceeds the maximum difference value, and the particular network cell is the UAV network cell that is using the backhaul of the ground network cell.