Qualcomm Incorporated

Ubiqomm LLC

Nortel Networks Corporation

Bridgewest Finance LLC

Other

Northern Telecom Limited

Ahmad Jalali

Leonard N Schiff

Mark S Wallace

Bin Tian

John Edward Smee

Ernest Tadashi Ozaki

Ashvin H Chheda

William G Ames

Mohammad Ali Tassoudji

Jay Rod Walton

Ivan Jesus Fernandez-Corbaton

Peter J Black

Paul E Bender

Charles E Wheatley, Iii

Roberto Padovani

Jay Rodney Walton

Nagabhushana T Sindhushayana

Leo L Strawczynski

Rashid Ahmed Attar

Jack Brian Steenstra

Ivan Jesus Fernandez Corbaton

Bruce A Judson

Michael S Feeney

Dhinakar Randakrishnan

Mehran Baghaei

Fuyun Ling

June Namgoong

Gregory Gordon Rose

Mark Leo Moeglein

Alexander Gantman

Allen Minh-Triet Tran

Srikant Jayaraman

Eduardo A S Esteves

Michael James Wengler

Sherman A Gregory

Harris Smith Simon

Alberto Gutierrez

Norman P Secord

John W Noerenberg, Ii

Jyoti Boppana

Marwan Abu-Amara

Steve Sides

Satyajit Doctor

Viktor Filiba

Deepa Ramakrishna

Tamer Adel Kadous

Mo-Han Fong

Avneesh Agrawal

Parag Arun Agashe

Geng Wu

Paul Eric Jacobs

Nikhil Jain

Serge M Manning

Franklin Peter Antonio

Ranganathan Krishnan

Alok Kumar Gupta

Witold A Krzymien

Ning Guo

Charles Alfred Bergan

Dhinakar Radhakrishnan

Paul Mermelstein

Robert Matyas

Scott Howard King

Pei Chen

Sumantra Chakravarty

Wookwon Lee

Jordi De Los Pinos Pont

Amir Bigloo

Sarvesh R Sharma

Kasra Jalali

David A Boettger

William B Book

David E Curtis

Jay R Walton, Jr

Wei Shi

Eduardo As Esteves

Jack Steentra

Eduardo A Esteves

Rashid A Atter

William Giffin Ames

Apparatus, systems and methods for the provision of high data rate and high throughput communications link for drones, in a bandwidth efficient manner. One set of embodiments describe apparatus and methods to mitigate interference from other systems when using the unlicensed radio frequency bands such as the Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) bands. Apparatus and methods are also described to enable association of the drone radio sub-system with an 'optimal' cell site, such as when the drone uses a directional antenna beam to maximize system throughput. Configurations of a mechanically steerable directional antenna aperture are also disclosed. Other embodiments describe systems and methods to mitigate excessive amounts of interference, and to provide a reliable communications link for signaling and other mission-critical messages.

Apparatus and methods to provide communications to aerial platforms

The User Equipment (UE) initiates initial access by transmitting an uplink reference signal on at least one UE beam. Each Base Station (BS) carries out a spatial search of detected uplink reference signals, estimates the Angle of Arrival (AoA) of the uplink reference signals, forms a dedicated downlink beam toward the UE at the estimated AoA, and sends an acknowledgement for the uplink reference signal on the dedicated downlink beam. The UE carries out a spatial search of the received acknowledgement, and identifies the UE beam angular pointing position, from which receives the acknowledgement with the highest signal quality, as the UE beam boresight toward the BS. The UE sends a connection setup request message to the BS on the identified UE beam boresight. The uplink reference signals and acknowledgements comprise a single preamble, effectively carrying one bit of information, or carry a small payload.

Uplink-initiated fast and low overhead initial access for MU MIMO systems

A User Equipment (UE) measures the signal quality of a dedicated downlink reference signal transmitted by a Base Station (BS) to the UE. If the signal quality is below a threshold, the UE initiates a measurement procedure to determine a target handover BS. The UE sequentially transmits an uplink reference signal on each of UE's beams. The BSs estimate the Angle of Arrival (AoA) of any received uplink reference signal, form a dedicated downlink beam pointed toward the AoA and transmit an acknowledgment to the UE on the corresponding beam. The UE estimates the signal quality of the received acknowledgements on the different UE beams, and transmits a handover message on the UE beam on which the acknowledgement with the highest signal quality is received The acknowledgement comprises a preamble, spread using a pseudo-noise sequence specific to each BS.

Signaling and procedures for fast and low overhead handover for MU MIMO systems

In a beamforming system, each User Equipment (UE) transmits an uplink probe. Each Base Station (BS) carries out a spatial search of the uplink probes, estimates an Angle of Arrival (AoA) of the uplink probe received from each UE, and estimates the uplink channel frequency response on an uplink dedicated beam formed toward the UE's AoA. The BS transmits a reference signal to each UE on a downlink dedicated beam formed toward the UE's AoA, from which the UE estimates the downlink frequency response. The UE forms channel impulse response matrices for the uplink and the downlink, using the estimated uplink and downlink channel frequency responses. The BS uses the channel impulse response matrices to form downlink and uplink dedicated beams that put boresight of the beams toward the AoA of one UE and put nulls toward the AoAs of the other UEs.

Joint optimization of multiple beams for MU MIMO systems

Systems and methods are described for a mesh network of Access Points (APs) and Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) to provide broadband access to premises such as houses or enterprises. Systems and method are described to enable self-configurable CPEs in the sense that the CPEs autonomously find and establish communications with the AP/CPEs from which they receive the strongest signal. Systems and methods are described to enable a self-healing network in the sense that the CPEs autonomously detect low received signal strength or lost connection, and find and establish communications with the AP/CPE from which they receive the strongest signal.

Self-configurable mesh network for wireless broadband access

A terrestrial communications network for providing broadband internet access to aerial platforms is described. One set of embodiments describe assignment of cell site beams to aerial platforms to maximize signal quality in a frequency reuse of 1 network. Another set of embodiments describe time division duplexing and beam forming schemes for minimizing co-channel interference. Systems and methods for establishing links from aerial platforms to cell sites, and mobility management of aerial platforms, to maximize signal quality are described. In another set of embodiments, systems and methods are described to mitigate fading due to ground reflection.

Communications system for providing broadband access to aerial platforms

A terrestrial communications network for providing broadband internet access to aerial platforms is described. In some embodiments, the cell site sector communications equipment comprises of at least two radio modules and two antenna apertures, the cell site transmits data to an aerial platform on only one antenna aperture, but receives from the aerial platform on all antenna apertures. In some embodiments, the cell site communications equipment divides each of the N data packet streams destined to N aerial platforms into multiple data packet sub-streams and sends each data packet sub-stream of an aerial platform on a different antenna aperture using a different frequency channel or antenna polarization, forming N beams from each antenna aperture, one beam toward each aerial platform.

Air to ground network for broadband access to aerial platforms

An air interface for a terrestrial communications network for providing broadband internet access to aerial platforms is described. In some embodiments, systems and methods are described for efficient retransmission of data packets that are not received correctly. In other embodiments, systems and methods are described for determining the modulation constellation and error correction code rate used in transmitting a data packet to maximize data rates. In another set of embodiments, the retransmission scheme and modulation constellation and error correction code rate determination are jointly optimized to maximize data rates.

Air interface protocols for broadband access to aerial platforms

A communication system is described. The system includes: at least one gateway able to provide broadband connectivity, a set of ground terminals, and a set of high altitude platforms (HAPs), where at least one aerial platform is able to communicate with at least one gateway using radio frequencies, each HAP is able to communicate with ground terminals using radio frequencies, and each HAP is able to communicate with each other HAP using radio frequencies. Ways to handoff a ground terminal/gateway from one HAP beam to another HAP beam are described. Ways to handoff a ground terminal/gateway from one HAP to another HAP are described. Ways that keep the communications payload radios active when there is data traffic and put the radios in sleep mode otherwise, thereby adjusting the communications payload power consumption to the data traffic requirements as a function of time and coverage area, are described.

Mobility and power management for high altitude platform (HAP) communication systems

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.

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

Transmitter and receiver units for use in an OFDM communications system and configurable to support multiple types of services. The transmitter unit includes one or more encoders, a symbol mapping element, and a modulator. Each encoder receives and codes a respective channel data stream to generate a corresponding coded data stream. The symbol mapping element receives and maps data from the coded data streams to generate modulation symbol vectors, with each modulation symbol vector including a set of data values used to modulate a set of tones to generate an OFDM symbol. The modulator modulates the modulation symbol vectors to provide a modulated signal suitable for transmission. The data from each coded data stream is mapped to a respective set of one or more 'circuits'. Each circuit can be defined to include a number of tones from a number of OFDM symbols, a number of tones from a single OFDM symbol, all tones from one or more OFDM symbols, or some other combination of tones. The circuits can have equal size or different sizes. Different circuits can be used for full rate data (e.g., active speech) and low rate data (e.g., silence periods).

Multiplexing of real time services and non-real time services for OFDM systems

A communication system is described. The system includes: at least one gateway able to provide broadband connectivity, a set of ground terminals, and a set of aerial platforms, where at least one aerial platform is able to communicate with at least one gateway using radio frequencies, each aerial platform is able to communicate with ground terminals using radio frequencies, and each aerial platform is able to communicate with each other aerial platform using radio frequencies. An automated method for determining a beam direction for communication among UAVs includes: dividing a space around the UAV into multiple sub-regions, and, iteratively: selecting a sub-region from among the multiple sub-regions; pointing a signal toward the sub-region; and determining whether a signal is received from another UAV, until all sub-regions from among the multiple sub-regions have been selected.

Unmanned aerial vehicle communication using distributed antenna placement and beam pointing

Systems and methods configured to form and point beams from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) toward target cells in a coverage area on the ground. One embodiment determines and forms the required number of UAV fixed beams needed to cover the target area when UAV is at its highest altitude and highest roll/pitch/yaw angles so that the target coverage area is covered under all UAV altitude and orientation conditions. In another embodiment, UAV determines the beam pointing angles toward different cells on the ground using information on position coordinates and orientation angles of the UAV, and the position coordinates of the cells in the coverage area relative to the center of coverage area. In another embodiment, a reference terminal placed at the center of coverage is used by the UAV to optimally point a beam toward center of the coverage area.

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) beam forming and pointing toward ground coverage area cells for broadband access

Systems and methods for detecting an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Network access (for example, to the Internet) may be provided by detecting a UAV and fixing one or more beams from one or more ground terminals to the UAV. In one embodiment, the detection of a UAV includes forming and pointing beams from a ground terminal and ground gateways toward the UAV. The ground terminal may be configured to autonomously steer its antenna beam during initial installation to detect the reference signal from a UAV. In one variant, the ground terminals are steered to more finely track the position of the UAV based on a signal quality metric such as received signal strength and the UAV real-time position location coordinates. In one embodiment, the ground terminal antenna is initially manually pointed toward the UAV, and thereafter allowed to automatically steer to track the position of the UAV. In another embodiment the UAV antenna is steered toward a ground terminal using signal qualify received from the ground terminal and real-time position coordinates and orientation of the UAV.

Ground terminal and UAV beam pointing in an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for network access

A position location system is described for determining position of mobile tags attached to assets or people. Zone tags are installed in the venue to assist in position location estimation of mobile Tags. One embodiment describes systems and methods for the zone tags to automatically determine their position location. Another embodiment describes systems and methods to detect that a zone tag has been moved and to determine the new position of the moved zone tags. Another embodiment describes systems and methods whereby mobile tags determine a list of zone tags with which to make range measurement for determining the mobile tag's position location.

Systems and methods of location and tracking

Growing community of inventors

Rancho Santa Fe, CA, United States of America

Ahmad Jalali