Multibeam coverage for a high altitude platform

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017237482-A1
Application number	US-201615214894-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 20, 2016
Priority date	Oct 9, 2014
Publication date	Aug 17, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

Multibeam coverage for a high altitude platform (“HAP”) is disclosed. An example method to provision a HAP includes determining an altitude range at which the HAP will operate and determining a minimum elevation angle from the ground to the HAP. The method also includes determining a coverage area of the HAP based on the altitude range and the minimum elevation angle and partitioning the coverage area into substantially equal-sized cells. The method further includes assigning an antenna to each of the cells and determining a beamwidth and an elevation angle for each antenna to provide communication coverage to the corresponding cell. The method moreover includes determining an aperture for each of the antennas based on the beamwidth and the elevation angle to provide the substantially equal-sized cells.

First claim

The invention is claimed as follows:

1 . A method to provision a telecommunications apparatus comprising:
determining, via a processor, an altitude range at which the telecommunications apparatus will operate; determining, via the processor, a minimum elevation angle from the ground to the telecommunications apparatus; determining, via the processor, a coverage area of the telecommunications apparatus based on the altitude range and the minimum elevation angle; partitioning, via the processor, an outer portion of the coverage area into a first subset of substantially equal-sized cells each having a first radius; partitioning, via the processor, an inner portion of the coverage area into a second subset of substantially equal-sized cells each having a second radius that is smaller than the first radius; assigning, via the processor, an antenna to each of the cells; determining, via the processor, a beamwidth and an elevation angle for each antenna to provide communication coverage to the corresponding cell based on bandwidth or quality of service (“QoS”) requirements; and determining, via the processor, an aperture for each of the antennas based on the beamwidth and the elevation angle such that the cells of the inner portion and the cells of the outer portion have the same surface spectral density.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first radius is 16.7 km and the second radius is 6.3 km.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, receiving a geographic location where the telecommunications apparatus is to operate, wherein the altitude range is determined based on an altitude of a tropopause at the received geographic location.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, determining, via the processor, a maximum communication range based on at least on of the altitude range, the minimum elevation angle, the coverage area, and a parametric input.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the parametric input includes at least one of:
(i) an input design parameter including at least one of an operational frequency, a modulation and coding scheme, a total number of the cells, a number of cells within the outer portion of the coverage area, a number of cells within the inner portion of the coverage area, a spectrum allocation, a polarization reuse, a spectral reuse, and an amount of available spectrum per cell; (ii) a user terminal parameter including at least one of a receiver noise figure, a receiver noise temperature, an elevation beamwidth, an azimuth beamwidth, a user terminal antenna height, a user terminal antenna width, and a gain; and (iii) a propagation parameter including at least one of atmosphere gas loss, cloud attenuation, rain attenuation, scintillation, total attenuation, spectral rolloff, and overhead.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of (i) the outer portion of the coverage area is partitioned into the first subset of substantially equal-sized cells, and (ii) the inner portion of the coverage area is partitioned into the second subset of substantially equal-sized cells based on at least one of (a) the bandwidth requirement, and (b) the QoS requirement.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a first bandwidth for each of the cells within the first subset and a second bandwidth for each of the cells within the second subset, the second bandwidth being less than the first bandwidth.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
partitioning, via the processor, a center portion of the coverage area into a third subset of at least one substantially equal-sized cell having a third radius that is smaller than the second radius; assigning, via the processor, an antenna to each of the cells in the third subset; determining, via the processor, a beamwidth and an elevation angle for each antenna in the third subset to provide communication coverage to the corresponding cell based on the antenna corresponding to a cell with the third radius; and determining, via the processor, an aperture for each of the antennas in the third subset based on the beamwidth and the elevation angle such that the cells of the center portion, the cells of the inner portion, and the cells of the outer portion have the same surface spectral density.

9 . A method to provision a telecommunications apparatus comprising:
determining, via a processor, an altitude range at which the telecommunications apparatus will operate; determining, via the processor, a minimum elevation angle from the ground to the telecommunications apparatus; determining, via the processor, a coverage area of the telecommunications apparatus based on the altitude range and the minimum elevation angle; partitioning, via the processor, the coverage area into substantially equal-sized cells; assigning, via the processor, an antenna to each of the cells; determining, via the processor, a beamwidth and an elevation angle for each antenna to provide communication coverage to the corresponding cell; and determining, via the processor, an aperture for each of the antennas based on the beamwidth and the elevation angle to provide the substantially equal-sized cells.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the apertures of the antennas corresponding to cells at outer edges of the coverage area have a larger size than apertures of antennas corresponding to cells within a center of the coverage area.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the telecommunications apparatus includes a high altitude platform operating at the altitude of 20 km, the minimum elevation is 15°, and the coverage area is 16,675 km 2 .

12 . The method of claim 9 , wherein each of the cells have an approximately hexagonal-shape and the antennas are arranged such that the corresponding cells form a honeycomb shape within the coverage area.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the coverage area is partitioned into 19 substantially equal-sized cells having a radius of 16.7 km such that:
an antenna corresponding to a cell within a center of the coverage area is configured to have a beamwidth of 79.7° and an aperture diameter of 0.35 inches conditioned on the apparatus operating between 28 to 30 GHz; six antennas corresponding to six cells around the center cell of the coverage area are configured to have an elliptical 3 dB beam contour of 25.6° by 52°, an aperture with dimensions of 1.07 by 0.47 inches, and a gain of 13.4 dB conditioned on the apparatus operating between 28 to 30 GHz; and 12 antennas corresponding to 12 cells around the six cells of the coverage area are configured to have an elliptical 3 dB beam contour of 8.9° by 28°, an aperture with dimensions of 3.11 by 1.0 inches, and a gain of 21 dB conditioned on the apparatus operating between 28 to 30 GHz.

14 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of antennas includes 25 antennas and the coverage area is partitioned into 25 cells such that:
an inner seven cells have an area of 125 km 2 and a radius of 6.3 km; an antenna corresponding to a central cell of the inner seven cells within a central area of the coverage area is configured to have a beamwidth of 35.1°, an aperture diameter of 0.78 inches, and a gain of 14.1 dB conditioned on the apparatus operating between 28 to 30 GHz; six antennas corresponding to six cells of the inner seven cells positioned around the center cell of the coverage area are configured to have an elliptical 3 dB beam contour of 22.3° by 33°, an aperture with dimensions of 1.23 by 0.83 inches, and a gain of 16.3 dB conditioned on the apparatus operating between 28 to 30 GHz; six antennas corresponding to outer six cells around the seven i

Assignees

• Hughes Network Systems Llc

Inventors

• Noerpel Anthony Robert
• Kay Stanley Edward

Classifications

• H04B7/18502

  Airborne stations · CPC title

• H04B7/1851

  Systems using a satellite or space-based relay (H04B7/18508, H04B7/18521 take precedence; providing specific services H04B7/18523 - H04B7/18576) · CPC title

• H04B7/18547

  for geolocalisation of a station (position fixing by direction or distance determination G01S5/00) · CPC title

• H01Q1/288

  Satellite antennas · CPC title

• H04B7/18513 Primary

  Transmission in a satellite or space-based system · CPC title