Behavior-based UAV detection for communication networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11974186-B2
Application number	US-202117525671-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 12, 2021
Priority date	Apr 4, 2018
Publication date	Apr 30, 2024
Grant date	Apr 30, 2024

Abstract

The identification of a user device as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) may cause the wireless communication network to implement certain operations. A determination may be made based on one or more behavior characteristics of a user device as to whether 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. In response to determining that the user device is the UAV instead of the airborne user device carried in the manned aircraft, 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.

First claim

The invention 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, modifying a base station handover threshold for the UAV 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.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the acts further comprise, in response to determining that the user device is the UAV, 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 the 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 determining includes determining that the user device is the UAV instead of an airborne user device carried in the manned aircraft in response to a speed of the airborne user device not exceeding a speed threshold.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining includes determining that the user device is the UAV instead of the airborne user device carried in the manned aircraft in response to a traveling time of the airborne user device being less than a predetermined amount of time.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining includes determining that the user device is the UAV instead of the airborne user device carried in the manned aircraft in response to a lack of voice communication data in uplink data or downlink data of the airborne user device.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the acts further comprise determining that the user device is the airborne user device carried in the manned aircraft instead of the UAV in response to a trajectory of the user device originating or intersecting a landing site for manned aircraft.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the acts further comprise determining that the user device is potentially airborne, and wherein the determining based on the one or more behavior characteristics of the user device that the user device is the UAV instead of an airborne user device carried in a manned aircraft is performed following the determining that the user device is potentially airborne.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the determining that the user device is potentially airborne is made at least in response to: the user device traveling at a trajectory that lacks a corresponding transit way, the user device traveling at a speed that exceeds a speed limit or a current vehicle traffic speed of a transit way by a margin value, or the user device traveling along a transit way for less than a predetermined amount of time, and then traveling along a new trajectory that lack a corresponding transit way for an additional predetermined amount of time.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining includes:
receiving training data that includes behavior patterns of multiple UAVs and non-UAV user devices that communicate with the wireless communication network, wherein 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.

10. 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, modifying a base station handover threshold for the UAV 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.

11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10 , wherein the acts further comprise, in response to determining that the user device is the UAV, 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 the 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.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10 , wherein the determining includes determining that the user device is the UAV instead of an airborne user device carried in the manned aircraft in response to a speed of the airborne user device not exceeding a s peed threshold.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10 , wherein the determining includes determining that the user device is the UAV instead of the airborne user device carried in the manned aircraft in response to a traveling time of the airborne user device being less than a predetermined amount of time.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10 , wherein the determining includes determining that the user device is the UAV instead of the airborne user device carried in the manned aircraft in response to a lack of voice communication data in uplink data or downlink data of the airborne user device.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10 , wherein the acts further comprise determining that the user device is the airborne user device carried in the manned aircraft instead of the UAV in response to a trajectory of the user device originating or intersecting a landing site for manned aircraft.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10 , wherein the acts further comprise determining that the user device is potentially airborne, and wherein the determining based on the one or more behavior characteristics of the user device that the user device is the UAV instead of an airborne user device carried in a manned aircraft is performed following the determining that the user device is potentially airborne.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 16 , wherein the determining that the user device is potentially airborne is made at least in response to: the user device traveling at a trajectory that lacks a corresponding transit way, the user device traveling at a speed that exceeds a speed limit or a current vehicle traffi

Assignees

• T Mobile Usa Inc

Inventors

• Murphy Sean Patrick

Classifications

• 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

• G06N20/00

  Machine learning · CPC title

• H04W4/12

  Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements · CPC title