US 2017/0324469 A1 · UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE (UAV) BEAM POINTING AND DATA RATE OPTIMIZATION FOR HIGH THROUGHPUT BROADBAND ACCESS

Abstract

Systems and methods configured to form and manage different types of beams toward target ground terminals to “optimally” communicate with the terminals. In one set of embodiments, the UAV generates a set of beams to cover cells on the ground, the beams are divided into groups, and the UAV communications system deterministically and sequentially turns a subset of the beams on/off to reduce cross-beam interference and increase system throughput. In another embodiment, in order to increase throughput, the UAV communications system determines the highest data rate on the downlink and uplink that are decodable at the receiver given the received signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) while maintaining a low packet error rate. Systems and methods are described to determine the UAV antenna pattern toward different terminals needed for SINR calculation and data rate determination.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) broadband access system comprising:

an antenna sub-system comprising at least one antenna aperture configured to form a plurality of beams toward a ground coverage area, where the plurality of beams are further subdivided into a plurality of groups of co-active beams;
wherein at least a portion of the plurality of groups of co-active beams are co-frequency;
a UAV radio sub-system comprising one or more transmitters and receivers and configured to transmit and receive signals to and from a set of ground terminals within the ground coverage area;
and
wherein the UAV radio sub-system further comprises logic configured to:
assign at least one ground terminal in at least one beam to transmit during a given time slot;
and
measure an uplink signal strength received from the assigned at least one ground terminal in the given time slot on at least one co-active co-frequency beam.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Unmanned aerial vehicle (uav) beam pointing and data rate optimization for high throughput broadband access

Life of this patent

Unmanned aerial vehicle (uav) beam pointing and data rate optimization for high throughput broadband access

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20