Cooperative realtime management of noise interference in ISM band

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10736052-B2
Application number	US-201916394635-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 25, 2019
Priority date	Apr 27, 2017
Publication date	Aug 4, 2020
Grant date	Aug 4, 2020

Abstract

An in-flight entertainment system includes a plurality of static transceivers and an ISM band communication interference manager. The static transceivers are configured to transmit and receive radio frequency signals in the ISM band. The static transceivers are further configured to measure signals received within the ISM band from mobile transceivers within the aircraft and to measure signals received from proximately located ones of the static transceivers, and to generate measurement reports containing the measurements and containing identifiers of the proximately located ones of the static transceivers and the mobile transceivers. The ISM band communication interference manager is communicatively connected to the static transceivers, and performs operations that include receiving the measurement reports from the static transceivers, and controlling transmission power levels used by the static transceivers and the mobile transceivers responsive to the content of the measurement reports.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A communication interference management system comprising:
a network interface that communicates with a plurality of spaced apart static transceivers through a network;
a processor coupled to the network interface; and
a memory coupled to the processor and storing program code that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving measurement reports from the static transceivers, the measurement reports containing measurements of signals received from mobile transceivers operating within the network and measurement of signals received from proximately located ones of the static transceivers;
generating a layout map that identifies the distances and relative directions between the static transceivers;
controlling transmission power levels used by at least one of the static transceivers and the mobile transceivers, responsive to the content of the measurement reports and the layout map.

2. The communication interference management system of claim 1 , wherein the network comprises a network of an aircraft cabin; and
wherein the layout map comprises an aircraft cabin layout map.

3. The communication interference management system of claim 1 , wherein the measurement reports received from the static transceivers contain received signal strength measurements for signals received by the static transceivers from mobile transceivers and corresponding identifiers of the mobile transceivers from which the signals were received, and the operations further comprising:
comparing the received signal strength measurements contained in the measurement reports to identify an interfering mobile transceiver having a transmission power level that satisfies a rule indicating excessive interference to a plurality of the static transceivers;
identifying one of the static transceivers that is communicating with the interfering mobile transceiver; and
communicating through the network a power control message addressed toward the identified one of the static transceivers that contains a command to reduce the transmission power level used by the interfering mobile transceiver.

4. The communication interference management system of claim 3 , the operations further comprising:
determining from further received measurement reports from the identified one of the static transceivers that the interfering mobile transceiver has not reduced or sufficiently reduced its transmission power level responsive to the command; and
generating a frequency change message communicated toward the identified one of the static transceivers for transmission to the interfering mobile transceiver that contains a command for the interfering mobile transceiver to use a frequency for transmission that is outside a group of frequencies that are reserved for use by the static transceivers to communicate with mobile transceivers other than the interfering mobile transceiver.

5. The communication interference management system of claim 1 , wherein the measurement reports received from each of the static transceivers contain received signal strength measurements for signals received by the static transceiver from mobile transceivers and corresponding identifiers of the mobile transceivers from which the signals were received, and the operations further comprise:
comparing the received signal strength measurements contained in the measurement reports to identify a first group of the static transceivers that are using transmission power levels that are more than a threshold amount greater than an average transmission power level used by a second group of the static transceivers that is proximately located to the first group of the static transceivers; and
communicating through the network power control messages addressed toward the first group of the static transceivers that contain commands to reduce the transmission power level used by the first group of the static transceivers.

6. The communication interference management system of claim 1 , wherein the operations to control transmission power levels used by the static transceivers and the mobile transceivers, comprise:
identifying, based on the measurement reports, an interfered one of the static transceivers subjected to communication interference that exceeds a defined rule;
identifying one of the static transceivers proximately located to the interfered one of the static transceivers; and
communicating through the network a power control message addressed toward the identified one of the static transceivers that contains a command to reduce the transmission power level used by the identified one of the static transceivers and/or to reduce the transmission power level used by at least one of the mobile transceivers communicating with the identified one of the static transceivers.

7. The communication interference management system of claim 6 , the operations further comprising:
determining the distances between the static transceivers based on received signal strength measurements indicated by the measurement reports of signals received by the static transceivers from other ones of the static transceivers; and
determining the relative directions between the static transceivers based on triangulating the determined distances between the static transceivers identified by the measurement reports;
using the layout map and relative strengths of the signals received by the static transceivers from the other static transceivers, to determine maximum transmission power levels that each of the static transceivers should stay below when transmitting to mobile transceivers; and
communicating through the network power control messages addressed toward each of the static transceivers that contains a command indicating the maximum transmission power levels determined for the static transceiver.

8. The communication interference management system of claim 6 , the operations further comprising:
determining the distances between the static transceivers based on received signal strength measurements indicated by the measurement reports of signals received by the static transceivers from other ones of the static transceivers;
determining the relative directions between the static transceivers based on triangulating the determined distances between the static transceivers identified by the measurement reports;
determining, based on the layout map and received signal strength measurements indicated by the measurement reports of signals received by the static transceivers from other ones of the static transceivers, transmission power levels that each of the static transceivers are using to communicate with mobile transceivers; and
based on the transmission power levels that each of the static transceivers are determined to be using to communicate and based on the distances and relative directions between the static transceivers indicated by the layout map, communicating through the network power control messages addressed toward the static transceivers that contain commands controlling the transmission power levels used by the static transceivers.

9. The communication interference management system of claim 6 , wherein the power control message contains a command to reduce the transmission power level used by a particular mobile transceiver communicating with the identified one of the static transceivers, and the operations further comprise:
identifying that the particular mobile transceiver is a rogue mobile transceiver based on it not reducing or sufficiently reducing its transmission power level responsive to the command; and
generating a frequency change message communicated through the identified one of the static transceivers for transmission to the rogue mobile t

Assignees

• Thales Avionics Inc

Inventors

• Rabii Khosro
• Couleaud Jean-Yves
• Schuberth Pierre
• Le May Cedric

Classifications

• H04W24/10

  Scheduling measurement reports {; Arrangements for measurement reports} · CPC title

• H04W4/023

  using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds · CPC title

• H04W16/18

  Network planning tools · CPC title

• H04W52/243 Primary

  taking into account interferences · CPC title

• H04W64/003

  locating network equipment · CPC title