Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Communication

A system on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), for facilitating communication, over a wireless air interface, between the UAV and a remote control station, wherein the wireless air interface is capable of supporting a first maximum bit-rate, the system comprising:

• an avionics unit, for controlling a flight path of the UAV;
• a camera unit, for generating a stream of video frames, wherein each video frame of the stream is a picture taken by the camera unit as the UAV proceeds according to the flight path;
• a codec unit, coupled to the camera unit, for encoding the stream of video frames according one or more codec parameters, thereby generating an encoded stream of video frames at a first codec bit-rate, wherein the first codec bit-rate is less than the first maximum bit-rate;
• a transceiver unit, coupled to the avionics unit and the codec unit, for communicating with the remote control station over the wireless air interface, wherein the transceiver unit exchanges command and control information with the remote control station, wherein the transceiver unit transmits the encoded stream of video frames from the codec unit to the remote control station, and wherein the command and control information influences the operation of the avionics unit;
• and
• a processing unit, coupled to the avionics unit, the codec unit and the transceiver unit, for (i) determining that the wireless air interface has changed to support a second maximum bit-rate, and responsive to the determination, instructing the codec to change the codec parameters such that the codec generates the encoded stream of video frames at a second codec bit-rate, wherein the second codec bit-rate is less than the second maximum bit-rate, and (ii) granting a first priority to the command and control information and granting a second priority to at least some frames of the encoded stream of video frames, wherein the first priority is higher than the second priority, thereby prioritizing the command and control information transmitted by the UAV over the at least some frames of the encoded stream of video frames transmitted by the UAV.