Behavior-based UAV detection for communication networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11212728-B2
Application number	US-201815945548-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 4, 2018
Priority date	Apr 4, 2018
Publication date	Dec 28, 2021
Grant date	Dec 28, 2021

Abstract

The identification of a user device as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) may cause the wireless communication network to implement certain operations. A user device communicating with a wireless communication network may be determined to be an UAV based on one or more behavior characteristics of the user device. Accordingly, a base station handover threshold for the UAV may be modified to prolong a communication duration of the UAV with a base station when a decrease in signal strength or an increase in signal interference of a signal provided by the base station occurs. The base station handover threshold is a threshold for determining when to handover communication between the UAV and the wireless communication network from the base station to an additional base station. The modification of base station handover threshold reduces a handover rate of the UAV between multiple base stations of the wireless communication network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
one or more processors; and
memory having instructions stored therein, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
determining based on one or more behavior characteristics of a user device that the user device is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) instead of an airborne user device carried in a manned aircraft as the user device communicates with a wireless communication network via one or more base stations; and
in response to determining that the user device is the UAV instead of the airborne user device carried in the manned aircraft, preventing the UAV from using an additional base station in a vicinity of the UAV for communicating with the wireless communication network by using a handover control mechanism in a core network of the wireless communication network to selectively suppress an initiation of a handover to the additional base station when the additional base station is available to takeover communication with the UAV from the base station.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the acts further comprise, in response to determining that the user device is the UAV instead of the airborne user device carried in the manned aircraft, modifying a base station handover delay for the UAV to delay an initiation of a handover of the UAV from a first base station to a second base station of the wireless communication network when a base station handover threshold is reached by a signal strength measurement or a signal interference measurement of a radio signal provided by the first base station.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the acts further comprise, in response to determining that the user device is the UAV instead of the airborne user device carried in the manned aircraft, modifying a base station handover threshold for the UAV that is a signal strength threshold or a signal interference threshold to prolong a communication duration of the UAV with a base station of the wireless communication network when a decrease in a corresponding signal strength or an increase in a corresponding signal interference of a radio signal provided by the base station occurs.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the modifying includes decreasing a value of the signal strength threshold to maintain communication between the base station and the UAV despite the decrease in the corresponding signal strength, or increasing a value of the signal interference threshold to maintain the communication between the base station and the UAV despite the increase in the corresponding signal interference.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the acts further comprise, in response to determining that the user device is the UAV instead of the airborne user device carried in the manned aircraft, sending a communication regarding a UAV-specific service plan or offer to a communication device of a subscriber of the wireless communication network that is associated with the UAV, or sending a communication regarding UAV operation regulations to the communication device of the subscriber.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more behavior characteristics of the user device includes an operating system identifier of an operating system that controls the user device, and wherein the determining includes determining based on the operating system identifier that the user device is the UAV instead of the airborne user device carried in the manned aircraft.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining includes:
receiving training data that includes behavior patterns of multiple UAVs and airborne user devices carried in manned aircraft that communicate with the wireless communication network, a behavior pattern of a corresponding UAV or a corresponding airborne user device carried in a manned aircraft including multiple behavior characteristics;
training a machine learning model based on the training data that includes behavior patterns of multiple UAVs and airborne user devices carried in manned aircraft; and
applying the machine learning model to a behavior pattern of the user device to determine that the user device is the UAV instead of the airborne user device carried in the manned aircraft.

8. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that upon execution cause one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
determining based on one or more behavior characteristics of a user device that the user device is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) instead of an airborne user device carried in a manned aircraft as the user device communicates with a wireless communication network via one or more base stations; and
in response to determining that the user device is the UAV instead of the airborne user device carried in the manned aircraft, preventing the UAV from being handed over to an additional base station in a vicinity of the UAV for communicating with the wireless communication network when the additional base station is one of a one or more base stations that are configured to be unavailable to the UAV by a handover control mechanism in a core network of the wireless communication network.

9. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the acts further comprise, in response to determining that the user device is the UAV instead of the airborne user device carried in a manned aircraft, modifying a base station handover delay for the UAV to delay an initiation of a handover for the UAV from a first base station to a second base station of the wireless communication network when a base station handover threshold is reached by a signal strength measurement or a signal interference measurement of a radio signal provided by the first base station.

10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the acts further comprise, in response to determining that the user device is the UAV instead of the airborne user device carried in a manned aircraft, modifying a base station handover threshold for the UAV that is a signal strength threshold or a signal interference threshold to prolong a communication duration of the UAV with a base station of the wireless communication network when a decrease in a corresponding signal strength or an increase in a corresponding signal interference of a radio signal provided by the base station occurs.

11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the acts further comprise, in response to determining that the user device is the UAV instead of the airborne user device carried in a manned aircraft, sending a communication regarding a UAV-specific service plan or offer to a communication device of a subscriber of the wireless communication network that is associated with the UAV, or sending a communication regarding UAV operation regulations to the communication device of the subscriber.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the one or more behavior characteristics of the user device includes an operating system identifier of an operating system that controls the user device.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12 , wherein the determining includes determining based on the operating system identifier that the user device is the UAV.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the determining includes:
receiving training data that includes behavior patterns of multiple UAVs and airborne user devices carried in manned aircraft that communicate with the wireless communication network

Assignees

• T Mobile Usa Inc

Inventors

• Murphy Sean Patrick

Classifications

• G06N7/01

  Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks · CPC title

• H04W36/302

  due to low signal strength · CPC title

• H04W36/00837 Primary

  Determination of triggering parameters for hand-off · CPC title

• H04W36/385 Primary

  of the core network · CPC title

• H04W64/006

  with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination · CPC title