Air-Ground Communication Beam Control via Location-Based Interval Adjustment
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Solution Overview
Problem
High-altitude communications systems face challenges with the weight, volume, and power consumption of centralized baseband processing units, leading to high costs and inefficiencies in data transmission between ground and aerial platforms, particularly due to excessive information exchange and real-time beam direction adjustments.
Innovation Solution
The system separates high-altitude and ground devices, determining beam width based on location information to adjust the interval of data transmission, reducing the amount of information exchanged and eliminating the need for real-time beam direction adjustments, thereby reducing power consumption and improving antenna gain.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a centralized baseband processing pool is used to evolve the radio access network towards C-RAN, then network performance and functionality are improved, but device power consumption, volume, and weight significantly increase, making it difficult to carry by high-altitude platforms
Solution Approach 1:
The base station is divided into two independent parts: a lightweight high-altitude component (antenna and radio frequency unit) and a ground-based component (baseband processing unit). This segmentation allows the high-altitude platform to carry only essential components, dramatically reducing weight while maintaining C-RAN functionality through wireless connection to the ground-based processing pool.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the high-altitude platform carries a complete base station with centralized baseband processing, then communication capability is improved, but the volume and weight requirements exceed the payload capacity of high-altitude platforms
Solution Approach 1:
The baseband processing function is extracted from the high-altitude platform and relocated to the ground. Only the essential radio frequency and antenna components are retained on the high-altitude platform, minimizing volume and weight while preserving full communication capability through the wireless backhaul connection to ground-based processing equipment.
3Measurement precision
If real-time beam direction adjustment is implemented by exchanging location information frequently, then communication accuracy is improved, but the amount of information exchanged over the air interface increases, leading to high power consumption
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuous real-time beam adjustment, the system uses periodic beam sweeping at predetermined intervals. The ground device performs beam sweeping to detect the high-altitude device and establish communication at specific time intervals, significantly reducing the frequency of location information exchange and associated power consumption while maintaining adequate tracking accuracy.
4Reliability
If the ground device adjusts beam direction in real time based on location information, then communication reliability is improved, but the complexity of real-time beam direction adjustment and information exchange increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary beam alignment through beam sweeping before actual data transmission begins. The ground device sweeps through possible beam directions in advance to locate the high-altitude device and establish the initial communication link, simplifying subsequent operations while maintaining reliability.
Data Source
Figure 1A
Figure 1B~1C
Figure 1D
AI summary
Embodiments of the present invention provide an air-ground communication control method. The method is applied to a hierarchical network that includes a ground network and at least one aerial network, and the method includes: receiving, by a ground platform, location information of a high-altitude platform sent by the high-altitude platform, where the ground platform is located in the ground network, the high-altitude platform is located in the aerial network, and a beam of the high-altitude platform covers the ground platform; determining a beam direction according to location information of the ground platform and the location information of the high-altitude platform; and sending beam width information to the high-altitude platform in the beam direction, where the beam width information is used to adjust an interval of sending the location information of the high-altitude platform.