Optimization of radio resource allocation based on unmanned aerial vehicle flight path information

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a set of one or more processors of a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

• receiving flight information describing a flight path for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV);
• identifying, based on the flight information, network cells of a wireless network that are along the flight path of the UAV and are anticipated to receive interference from a transmission by the UAV while the UAV traverses the flight path, and in which a network cell is anticipated to receive interference from the UAV when, based on an expected altitude and an expected angle relative to the network cell along a portion of the flight path, the UAV will have a line-of-sight path to the network cell, wherein the identified network cells include a first network cell and a second network cell where the flight path for the UAV transitions a coverage area overlapped by the first network cell and the second network cell of the wireless network where interference is anticipated;
• determining a set of network resources that are unused for the first network cell and the second network cell where the flight path for the UAV transitions the coverage area overlapped by the first network cell and the second network cell;
• and
• reserving, for the UAV, the set of network resources for the first network cell and the second network cell, based on the flight information for at least a period when the UAV transitions the coverage area to reduce interference, wherein the set of network resources comprises one or more Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs), each PRB having a specified frequency band along a frequency dimension and a specified time period over a time dimension, and wherein to reserve the set of network resources reserves corresponding PRBs having same specified frequency band and time period for both the first network cell and the second network cell.

A network device for managing a wireless connection of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory includes one or more instructions that when executed by the processor cause the network device to:
• receive flight information describing a flight path for the UAV;
• identify, based on the flight information, network cells of a wireless network that are along the flight path of the UAV and are anticipated to receive interference from a transmission by the UAV while the UAV traverses the flight path, and in which a network cell is anticipated to receive interference from the UAV when, based on an expected altitude and an expected angle relative to the network cell along a portion of the flight path, the UAV will have a line-of-sight path to the network cell, wherein the identified network cells include a first network cell and a second network cell where the flight path for the UAV transitions a coverage area overlapped by the first network cell and the second network cell of the wireless network where interference is anticipated;
• determine a set of network resources that are unused for the first network cell and the second network cell where the flight path for the UAV transitions the coverage area overlapped by the first network cell and the second network cell;
• and
• reserve, for the UAV, the set of network resources for the first network cell and the second network cell based on the flight information for at least a period when the UAV transitions the coverage area to reduce interference, wherein the set of network resources comprises one or more Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs), each PRB having a specified frequency band along a frequency dimension and a specified time period over a time dimension and wherein to reserve the set of network resources reserves corresponding PRBs having same specified frequency band and time period for both the first network cell and the second network cell.