Unmanned aerial vehicle network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11356172-B2
Application number	US-202016816605-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 12, 2020
Priority date	Mar 16, 2019
Publication date	Jun 7, 2022
Grant date	Jun 7, 2022

Abstract

Systems and methods implementing a multi-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) wireless communication network are provided. The system includes application UAVs that wirelessly provide applications. The system includes relay UAVs that connect the application UAVs to a ground station. The ground station connects to a wireless backhaul network. Processor devices determine mobility for the application UAVs based on application-specific objectives. The processor devices also determine mobility for the relay UAVs based on forming and maintaining the wireless backhaul network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for implementing a multi-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) wireless communication network, comprising:
a plurality of application UAVs configured to wirelessly provide at least one application;
a plurality of relay UAVs configured to connect the plurality of application UAVs to a ground station;
the ground station configured to connect to a wireless backhaul network; and
at least one processor device operatively coupled to at least one memory device, the at least one processor device being configured to:
determine mobility for the plurality of application UAVs based on application-specific objectives;
determine mobility for the plurality of relay UAVs based on forming and maintaining the wireless backhaul network;
optimize a deployment of the plurality of relay UAVs angularly by
contracting at least one of the plurality of relay UAVs with abundant radio capacity;
repositioning a remaining of the plurality of relay UAVs to efficiently utilize their available radio capacity across sessions while continuing to support a target traffic demand; and
checking each pair of the relay UAVs that belong to different sessions whether the pair of the relay UAVs can be contracted and replaced by a single UAV in a new position and orientation, while supporting aggregate traffic belonging to the pair of the relay UAVs.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor device is further configured to:
implement a process for determining optimal position, yaw and traffic routing across the plurality of relay UAVs and the plurality of application UAVs.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor device is further configured to:
determine mobility for the plurality of relay UAVs based on a two-step optimization across radial and angular deployment directions.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein, when optimizing the deployment of the plurality of relay UAVs, the at least one processor device is further configured to:
determine a representative set of contraction points to be evaluated for a feasible orientation for routing based on an intersection of circles for each neighbor of the pair of the relay UAVs being contracted and whose radius corresponds to a maximum distance that supports traffic demand between the neighbor and the pair of the relay UAVs.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor device is further configured to:
jointly determine a configuration for the multi-UAV wireless communication network across three dimensions:
(i) a quantity and position of UAVs to be deployed;
(ii) yaw of the plurality of relay UAVs and the plurality of application UAVs such that a position of onboard interfaces establishes a target mesh connectivity topology between the plurality of relay UAVs, the plurality of application UAVs and the ground station; and
(iii) the routing of traffic between the plurality of relay UAVs, the plurality of application UAVs and the ground station to satisfy a traffic demand of the at least one application.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the at least one processor device is further configured to:
implement an optimization to determine a minimal number of UAVs and deployment positions of the minimal number of UAVs to support a traffic demand of each session of the at least one application in isolation without sharing relay UAVs across sessions, while accounting for time (γk) sharing a same radio's capacity at a ground station UAV between sessions in a same sector.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor device is further configured to:
implement an optimal process for fast backhaul re-configuration based on leveraging multiple layers of altitude to ensure that reconfiguration of a position and yaw of the plurality of relay UAVs is carried out in a minimum time while remaining collision-free.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the at least one processor device is further configured to:
determine min-max bipartite matching assignment between old configuration positions and new configuration positions of the plurality of relay UAVs that minimizes a time taken to migrate to the new configuration positions.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
assign configuration changes in a conflict graph with differentiators to different altitudes to determine a collision-free flight control path;
move at least one set of UAVs assigned to different altitudes first, while retaining their position in a horizontal plane;
move the at least one set of UAVs in different altitudes o their new position in the horizontal plane;
move the at least one set of UAVs to an original altitude for operation.

10. A system for implementing a multi-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) wireless communication network, comprising:
at least one ground station UAV configured to provide a last-hop link to a ground station;
a plurality of application UAVs configured to wirelessly provide at least one application;
a plurality of relay UAVs configured to connect the plurality of application UAVs to the ground station via the at least one ground station UAV;
the ground station configured to connect to a millimeter wave spectrum (mmWave) mesh backhaul network; and
at least one processor device operatively coupled to at least one memory device, the at least one processor device being configured to:
determine mobility for the plurality of application UAVs based on application-specific objectives including at least one of high bandwidth communications and high-resolution sensing;
determine mobility for the plurality of relay UAVs based on forming and maintaining the mmWave mesh backhaul network; and
optimize a deployment of the plurality of relay UAVs angularly by
contracting at least one of the plurality of relay UAVs with abundant radio capacity;
repositioning a remaining of the plurality of relay UAVs to efficiently utilize their available radio capacity across sessions while continuing to support a target traffic demand; and
checking each pair of the relay UAVs that belong to different sessions whether the pair of the relay UAVs can be contracted and replaced by a single UAV in a new position and orientation, while supporting aggregate traffic belonging to the pair of the relay UAVs.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one processor device is further configured to:
implement a process for determining optimal position, yaw and traffic routing across the at least one ground station UAV, the plurality of relay UAVs and the plurality of application UAVs.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one processor device is further configured to:
determine mobility for the plurality of relay UAVs based on a two-step optimization across radial and angular deployment directions.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein, when optimizing the deployment of the plurality of relay UAVs, the at least one processor device is further configured to:
determine a representative set of contraction points to be evaluated for a feasible orientation for routing based on an intersection of circles for each neighbor of the pair of the relay UAVs being contracted and whose radius corresponds to a maximum distance that supports traffic demand between the neighbor and the pair of the relay UAVs.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one processor device is further configured to:
implement an optimal process for fast backhaul re-configuration based on leveraging multiple layers of altitude to ensure that reconfiguration of a position and yaw of the plurality of relay UAVs is carried out in a minim

Assignees

• Nec Lab America Inc
• Nec Corp

Inventors

• Chai Eugene
• Rangarajan Sampath
• Sundaresan Karthikeyan
• Sheshadri Ramanujan

Classifications

• H04W4/40

  for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P] · CPC title

• H04W84/06

  Airborne or Satellite Networks (space-based or airborne stations H04B7/185) · CPC title

• H04B7/18584 Primary

  Arrangements for data networking, i.e. for data packet routing, for congestion control (data switching networks H04L12/00) · CPC title

• H04B7/18504 Primary

  Aircraft used as relay or high altitude atmospheric platform · CPC title

• H04W4/08

  User group management · CPC title