Smartsky Networks, LLC

Elbert Stanford Eskridge, Jr

Gerard James Hayes

Koichiro Takamizawa

Ryan Mitchell Stone

Blane Edward Rockafellow

John Swartz

Mike Barts

James O Legvold

Bruce J Holmes

Joe Klein

James Evans Ladd, Jr

Douglas A Hyslop

James O Legvoid

A base station within a network for providing ATG wireless communication in various cells may include an antenna array defining a plurality of wedge shaped sectors having respective widths defined in azimuth, and a beamforming control module. The beamforming control module may be configured to communicate with the antenna array via a first RF chain to perform beamforming defining traffic channel beams having a first width, and a second RF chain to perform beamforming defining control channel beams having a second width. The second width may be greater than the first width.

Air to ground communication system with separate control and traffic channels

A unified radio system for providing wireless communication to a communication device on an aircraft regardless of aircraft altitude may include a terrestrial network including a plurality of terrestrial base stations configured to communicate primarily in a ground communication layer below a first altitude, an ATG network including a plurality of ATG base stations configured to communicate primarily in an ATG communication layer above a second altitude, an air-to-air mesh network for data relays through connected aircraft, and an aircraft with an onboard antenna assembly and a unified radio. The unified radio may be configured to monitor network parameters of the terrestrial network and the ATG network and switch between a currently serving network and a non-serving network based on the network parameters.

Unified radio solution

A system for providing services to remote airports includes a backbone network, an antenna assembly and a remote services module. The backbone network operates using first assigned RF spectrum and is configured to provide backhaul services and network control to operably couple one or more base stations of the backbone network to the Internet. The antenna assembly is disposed at a remote airport to define an airport cell and is configured to communicate wirelessly with an aircraft located in the airport cell via second assigned RF spectrum. The antenna assembly is operably coupled to the backbone network for backhaul to the Internet or an intranet. The remote services module is accessible by the aircraft both in flight and on the ground within the airport cell via the antenna assembly. The remote services module includes processing circuitry configuring the remote services module to provide the aircraft with access to obtain airside or landside services associated with the remote airport.

Remote airport management services

An information manager may include processing circuitry configured to receive dynamic aircraft information associated with operation of an in-flight aircraft, receive a message from a communication device on the in-flight aircraft for transmission to a ground based content server via a wireless communication network capable of communicating with in-flight assets, and generate an aviation cookie for communication to the content server along with the message. The aviation cookie may be generated based on the dynamic aircraft information and may enable the content server to generate content based at least in part on the dynamic aircraft information.

Smart aviation dynamic cookie

An antenna assembly includes a plurality of active antenna elements disposed in a first linear array along a reference line and equidistant from each adjacent antenna element by a first linear distance, and a plurality of passive antenna elements disposed in a second linear array extending parallel to the reference line such that each passive antenna element is a second linear distance away from a corresponding one of the active antenna elements. The antenna assembly includes or is operably coupled to a phase control module configured to apply selected phase fronts to selected ones of the antenna elements to generate constructive and destructive interference patterns to define a directive beam in a desired direction in a range between about 0 and 180 degrees relative to the reference line.

Digital beamforming fin antenna assembly

An antenna assembly includes a plurality of antenna elements disposed in a circular pattern and equidistant from each other in angular separation relative to a common reference point at a center of the circular pattern. The antenna assembly may include or be operably coupled to a phase control module configured to apply selected phase fronts to each of the antenna elements to generate constructive and destructive interference patterns to define a directive beam in a desired direction. The selected phase fronts may include no phase adjustment, a positive phase adjustment value and a negative phase adjustment value, the positive and negative phase adjustment values each having a same magnitude.

Directive beamforming antenna

A network controller including processing circuitry may be configured to receive dynamic position information indicative of a three dimensional position of at least one mobile communication node, compare fixed position information indicative of fixed geographic locations of respective access points of a network to the dynamic position information to determine a relative position of the at least one mobile communication node relative to at least one of the access points based on the fixed position information and the dynamic position information, and provide network control instructions to at least one network asset based on the relative position.

Position information assisted network control

A method of interference mitigation may include receiving a desired signal from an asset of the system at an antenna assembly and associating the desired signal with relative phase distribution information based on a relative location of origin of the desired signal where the relative phase distribution information is predetermined for the antenna assembly. The method further includes receiving an interfering signal and associating the interfering signal with relative phase distribution information based on a relative location of origin of the interfering signal where the desired signal and the interfering signal forming a received signal set. The method further includes normalizing signals of the received signal set to respective relative phases associated with each respective relative location of origin, and performing interference cancellation of the interfering signal based on the normalized signals.

Interference mitigation based on antenna system phase distribution

An antenna assembly includes a driven element, a first set of antenna elements disposed a first distance from the driven element such that each element of the first set of antenna elements is equidistant from adjacent elements of the first set of antenna elements, and a second set of antenna elements disposed a second distance from the driven element such that each element of the second set of antenna elements is equidistant from adjacent elements of the second set of antenna elements, the second distance being larger than the first distance. The antenna assembly includes or is operably coupled to a selector module configured to select one element of the first set of antenna elements as a selected director, and select one element of the second set of antenna elements as a selected reflector by effectively shortening a length of the selected director and effectively lengthening the selected reflector.

Monopole antenna assembly with directive-reflective control

A method of enhancing wireless communication performance includes receiving information indicative of a local interferer where the local interferer is identified based on dynamic position information indicative of a position of at least one mobile communication node, performing noise cancellation relative to a received signal by removing an interference signal associated with the local interferer to generate a scrubbed signal, and providing the scrubbed signal for additional signal processing.

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Chapel Hill, NC, United States of America

Elbert Stanford Eskridge, Jr