Mobile telecommunications for aircraft and land based vehicles

In a method of operating a cellular telephone system of the type having a designated plurality of radio channels, some of the channels being control channels and some of the channels being voice channels for mobile stations,

• a) a plurality of cells, each cell having a base station including a tower located proximate a center thereof,
• b) each base station equipped to simultaneously transmit and receive on a plurality of voice channels, and at least one control channel,
• c) a plurality of mobile stations operating within the cells,
• d) each mobile station capable of transmitting and receiving upon some of the channels, and
• e) at least one mobile switching center connected to each of said base stations,
• f) said mobile switching centers including means for switching any of the mobile stations from one cell to another,
• g) each of the mobile stations being capable of receiving instructions from the base stations to determine the selection of channels,
• wherein the improved method comprises:
• h) transmitting and receiving land signals in a land radiation pattern at a land elevation having a land effective transmission range upon a set of voice channels selected from all said voice channels to land mobile stations from the base stations,
• j) transmitting land signals from the land mobile stations on land vehicles to the base stations at a land power output,
• k) transmitting and receiving air signals in an aircraft radiation pattern at an air elevation having an aircraft effective transmission range upon a set of voice channels selected from all said voice channels to air mobile stations from at least one of the base stations,
• l) transmitting air signals from air mobile stations on aircraft to the base station at an air power output which is substantially lower than any said land power output,
• m) said aircraft radiation pattern elevation being higher than the elevation of said land radiation pattern, and
• n) said aircraft effective transmission range being greater than the land effective transmission range.

A structural cellular telephone system using a designated plurality of radio channels, some of the channels being control channels and some of the channels being voice channels, said system having

• a) a plurality of cells, each cell having a base station including a tower located proximate a center thereof,
• b) each base station equipped to simultaneously transmit and receive a plurality of voice channels, and at least one control channel,
• c) a plurality of mobile stations operating within the cells,
• d) each mobile station being equipped to transmit and receive on some of the channels, and
• e) at least one mobile switching center connected to each of said base stations,
• f) said mobile switching centers including means for switching any of the mobile stations from one cell to another,
• g) each of the mobile stations being equipped to receive instructions from the base stations to determine selections of said channels,
• wherein the improvement comprises:
• h) some of the mobile stations being on aircraft and some of the mobile stations being on land vehicles,
• i) all said base stations having a land capability to transmit and receive signals on the channels in a land radiation pattern,
• j) some of said base stations having an air capability to transmit and receive signals on the channels in an aircraft radiation pattern,
• k) said aircraft radiation pattern being at a higher elevation than the elevation of said land radiation pattern,
• l) the voice channels to be used for the aircraft radiation pattern selected from all of the voice channels, and the voice channels to be used for the land radiation pattern selected from all of the voice channels,
• m) all cells having land effective transmission range from the base station,
• n) all cells having a base station having said air capability having an air effective transmission range which is greater than the land effective transmission range of all cells,
• o) said base stations having said air capability also having the capability of transmitting an aircraft horizontally polarized radiation and all said base stations having the capability of a land vertical polarized radiation.