Computing protection zones for avoidance of interference in wireless communications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10602371-B2
Application number	US-201615379131-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2016
Priority date	Dec 14, 2015
Publication date	Mar 24, 2020
Grant date	Mar 24, 2020

Abstract

In one embodiment, a device of a first wireless communication network determines location information and antenna properties corresponding to each of a plurality of unintended receivers of a second wireless communication network. The device may then compute a protection zone for each of the plurality of unintended receivers based on the location information and antenna properties, wherein a protection zone defines a geographical area where transmission by a terminal in the first wireless communication network might interfere with operation of a corresponding unintended receiver. As such, the terminal may thus determine whether to perform or prevent an attempted transmission to an intended receiver in the first wireless communication network based on whether a current location of the terminal, at a time of the attempted transmission by the terminal, is within any protection zone of the plurality of unintended receivers.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
determining, by a device of a first wireless communication network, location information and antenna properties corresponding to each of a plurality of unintended receivers of a second wireless communication network operating on a channel;
computing, by the device, a protection zone for each of the plurality of unintended receivers based on the location information and antenna properties and on transmission properties of a terminal in the first wireless communication network, wherein a protection zone defines a geographical area where transmission by the terminal might interfere with operation of a corresponding unintended receiver;
determining, based on the protection zones and prior to performing any attempted transmissions on the channel, whether a current location of the terminal is within any protection zone of the plurality of unintended receivers operating on the channel;
causing, in response to determining that the current location of the terminal is not within any protection zone of the plurality of unintended receivers, the terminal to perform an attempted transmission on the channel to an intended receiver of the first wireless communication network; and
preventing, in response to determining that the current location of the terminal is within one or more protection zones of the plurality of unintended receivers, the terminal from performing the attempted transmission on the channel and any other transmissions on the channel.

2. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the first wireless communication network is a satellite communication network and the second wireless communication network is a point-to-point (PtP) communication network.

3. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the location information and antenna properties comprise one or more of: coordinates on a map; height above sea level; antenna polarity; antenna orientation; antenna azimuth; antenna direction; antenna design; and antenna frequency bands.

4. The method as in claim 1 , further comprising:
enlarging computed protection zones to account for one or more margins of error.

5. The method as in claim 4 , wherein enlarging comprises a smearing operation that accounts for worst-case variations in one or more measurements affecting interference location computations.

6. The method as in claim 1 , further comprising:
reducing coverage of a particular protection zone based on geographical characteristics that obscure a line of sight from the corresponding unintended receiver to the terminal.

7. The method as in claim 6 , further comprising:
limiting performance of terrain-based computations to areas within the protection zone to determine specific locations where the line of sight is unobscured.

8. The method as in claim 1 , further comprising:
simplifying representation of the protection zones into a less precise representation that indicate areas within which there is a potential for interference.

9. The method as in claim 8 , further comprising:
causing, in response the current location being within one or more protection zones of the plurality of unintended receivers, the terminal to perform a local assessment of interference to the one or more unintended receivers to determine whether to perform or prevent the transmission.

10. The method as in claim 8 , wherein the simplified representation comprises a simplified polygon representation.

11. The method as in claim 8 , wherein the simplified representation comprises major and minor horizon representations, wherein the major horizon is based on a furthest distance from a corresponding unintended receiver for which interference might occur along a main lobe of a corresponding antenna within a given angular range, and wherein the minor horizon is based on a furthest distance from the corresponding unintended receiver for which interference might occur along side and back lobes of the corresponding antenna outside of the given angular range.

12. The method as in claim 11 , further comprising:
determining the given angular range specific to the corresponding unintended receiver.

13. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the device is a server, the method further comprising:
transmitting the protection zone for each of the plurality of unintended receivers to the terminal.

14. The method as in claim 1 , further comprising:
updating at least one of either the location information or antenna properties corresponding to one or more of the plurality of unintended receivers; and
re-computing the protection zone for each of the one or more of the plurality of unintended receivers based on the updated location information or antenna properties.

15. The method as in claim 1 , wherein computing the protection zones comprises:
determining, based on the receiver antenna properties for a corresponding unintended receiver, a receiver acceptance cone (RAC) for a main lobe of a corresponding receiver antenna;
determining, based on the receiver antenna properties for the corresponding unintended receiver, a close proximity circle encompassing side and back lobes of the corresponding receiver antenna; and
establishing the protection zone for the corresponding unintended receiver as the RAC and close proximity circle.

16. The method as in claim 1 , wherein computing the protection zones comprises:
performing link budget calculations for a corresponding unintended receiver from a plurality of potential transmission locations to determine where an attempted transmission might interfere with the corresponding unintended receiver.

17. The method as in claim 16 , wherein link budget calculations comprise:
determining whether the attempted transmission would interfere with the corresponding unintended receiver based on a calculated receive power at the corresponding unintended receiver crossing a safety margin threshold related to a noise floor of the corresponding unintended receiver.

18. The method as in claim 16 , wherein link budget calculations comprise:
calculating, at angular increments around the corresponding unintended receiver, a distance at which the attempted transmission crosses a noise floor threshold of the corresponding unintended receiver; and
connecting calculated angular-distance pairs to create a boundary of a particular protection zone around the corresponding unintended receiver.

19. The method as in claim 1 , wherein computing the protection zones is based on a direction of a particular attempted transmission toward a particular intended receiver and the direction of the particular attempted transmission with respect to the corresponding unintended receiver.

20. The method as in claim 1 , wherein a plurality of protection zones are computed for each of the plurality of unintended receivers, the plurality of protection zones corresponding to respective intended receiver options.

21. The method as in claim 1 , wherein computing the protection zones is based on transmission antenna patterns of a particular attempted transmission toward a particular intended receiver at a given transmission power and receiver antenna patterns of the corresponding unintended receiver.

22. The method as in claim 1 , wherein computing the protection zones is based on transmission polarity of the attempted transmission, and a receive polarity of the one or more unintended receivers.

23. The method as in claim 1 , wherein computing the protection zones is based on an orientation of the terminal with

Assignees

• Higher Ground Llc

Inventors

• Reis Robert S
• Russell Mark E
• Hansen Paul Christopher

Classifications

• H04W64/00

  Locating users or terminals {or network equipment} for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management · CPC title

• H04W16/24 Primary

  Cell structures · CPC title

• H04W16/14

  Spectrum sharing arrangements {between different networks} · CPC title

• H04W4/021

  Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences · CPC title

• H04W74/08

  Non-scheduled access, e.g. ALOHA (hybrid access H04W74/02) · CPC title