Balloon clumping to provide bandwidth requested in advance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10779167-B2
Application number	US-201916441503-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 14, 2019
Priority date	May 14, 2012
Publication date	Sep 15, 2020
Grant date	Sep 15, 2020

Abstract

Methods and systems disclosed herein relate to determining a projected change in bandwidth demand in a specified area during a specified future time period, repositioning one or more balloons in a high-altitude balloon network based on the projected change in bandwidth demand, and providing, using the one or more balloons, at least a portion of the bandwidth demanded in the specified area during the specified future time period.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
projecting, by one or more processors, a future bandwidth demand in a predetermined area at a future time period based on an anticipated bandwidth need;
before the future time period begins and based on the projected future bandwidth demand, causing one or more balloons of a plurality of balloons to move into airspace over the predetermined area;
determining a priority level related to the future bandwidth demand; and
causing the one or more balloons to provide bandwidth in the predetermined area to some users preferentially over other users during the future time period based on the priority level.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the priority level corresponds to an emergency priority level.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the one or more balloons to provide bandwidth includes providing bandwidth to a specified group of users.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein causing the one or more balloons to provide bandwidth includes providing bandwidth to only the specified group of users.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the specific group of users are emergency service personnel.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the specific group of users are news organization personnel.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a priority level is based on a level of service for users of the bandwidth in the specified area during the specified future time period.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the level of service corresponds to a rate paid for the bandwidth in the specified area during the specified future time period.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein a first rate corresponds to priority access to bandwidth and a second rate corresponds to limited access to bandwidth, and wherein the first rate is greater than the second rate, and the rate paid is one of the first rate or the second rate.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the level of service corresponds to a download speed.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the level of service corresponds to a particular capped bandwidth.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving an advance request identifying the anticipated bandwidth need in the predetermined area for the future time period.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the anticipated bandwidth relates to a planned event in the predetermined area during the future time period.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising receiving the advance request for bandwidth from a target user, and wherein causing the one or more balloons to provide the bandwidth includes providing bandwidth to at least the target user in the predetermined area during the future time period.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing bandwidth in the specified area during the specified future time period includes controlling a balloon network density over the predetermined area based at least on the future bandwidth demand.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein controlling the balloon network density includes increasing the balloon network density over the predetermined area based at least on the future bandwidth demand.

17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, after the future time period, repositioning the one or more balloons to a previous coverage arrangement.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the one or more balloons to provide bandwidth in the predetermined area during the future time period includes causing the one or more balloons to provide bandwidth from outside the predetermined area.

Assignees

• Loon Llc

Inventors

• Teller Eric
• Patrick William Graham

Classifications

• H04L47/829

  Topology based · CPC title

• H04W16/04 Primary

  Traffic adaptive resource partitioning · CPC title