Base Station Vertical Cell Allocation for Air-to-Ground Communication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing air-to-ground communication systems face congestion and decreased frequency usage efficiency due to improper allocation of wireless communication resources, as aircraft terminals can connect to ground cells and non-aircraft terminals can connect to vertically-oriented cells, requiring complex communication control procedures.
Innovation Solution
A base station device that allocates wireless communication resources without needing aircraft position and altitude information, using distinct cell IDs to direct aircraft terminals to vertically-oriented cells and ground terminals to ground cells, allowing for the same control procedures as ground-to-ground communication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a vertically-oriented antenna is added to an existing ground communication base station for air-to-ground communication, then the cost of building a new dedicated base station is reduced, but wireless communication resources are improperly allocated causing communication congestion and decreased frequency usage efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The base station segments communication resources by creating distinct ground cells and air cells with different cell IDs. Ground terminals are allocated resources in ground cells while aircraft terminals are allocated resources in air cells, preventing resource conflicts and improving frequency usage efficiency while reusing the existing base station infrastructure
Solution Approach 2:
The base station applies different communication resource allocation strategies to different spatial regions: ground-level terminals receive resources from horizontally-oriented antennas in ground cells, while aerial terminals receive resources from vertically-oriented antennas in air cells. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction by ensuring proper resource allocation without requiring a completely new dedicated base station
2Ease of manufacture
If a vertically-oriented antenna is added to an existing ground communication base station for air-to-ground communication, then the cost of building a new dedicated base station is reduced, but communication congestion occurs due to improper resource allocation
Solution Approach 1:
The base station segments communication resources by creating distinct ground cells and air cells with different cell IDs. Ground terminals are allocated resources in ground cells while aircraft terminals are allocated resources in air cells, preventing resource conflicts and improving frequency usage efficiency while reusing the existing base station infrastructure
Solution Approach 2:
The base station applies different communication resource allocation strategies to different spatial regions: ground-level terminals receive resources from horizontally-oriented antennas in ground cells, while aerial terminals receive resources from vertically-oriented antennas in air cells. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction by ensuring proper resource allocation without requiring a completely new dedicated base station
3Measurement precision
If complex communication control procedures are implemented to prevent aircraft terminals from connecting to ground cells and ground terminals from connecting to vertically-oriented cells, then resource allocation accuracy is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The base station segments communication resources by creating distinct ground cells and air cells with different cell IDs. Ground terminals are allocated resources in ground cells while aircraft terminals are allocated resources in air cells, preventing resource conflicts and improving frequency usage efficiency while reusing the existing base station infrastructure
Solution Approach 2:
The base station uses different cell IDs as a simple parameter to differentiate between ground cells and air cells. This parameter-based differentiation enables automatic and accurate resource allocation without requiring complex control procedures, as terminals can identify appropriate cells based on cell ID alone
Data Source
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AI summary
The prevent invention is made to provide a solution which, without a need to acquire and use information on an aircraft's position and altitude, enables proper allocation of a wireless communication resource to ground-to-ground communication and air-to-ground communication, thereby avoiding occurrence of congestion in communication and a decrease in frequency usage efficiency, and further enables air-to-ground communication to be controlled by following the same control procedure as ground-to-ground communication. According to the present invention, a base station device is configured to manage a vertically-oriented cell formed by a vertically-oriented antenna and a ground cell formed by a horizontally-oriented antenna with respective IDs used to identify the vertically-oriented cell and the ground cell, to determine whether or not a counterpart terminal device is an aircraft terminal device for air-to-ground communication based on a terminal ID included in a message received therefrom, and to control communication with the counterpart terminal device such that, if the counterpart terminal device is an aircraft terminal device, the base station selects the vertically-oriented cell as a connection destination of the counterpart terminal device and transmits a connection instruction message including a cell ID of the vertically-oriented cell to the counterpart terminal device, otherwise, the base station selects the ground cell as a connection destination of the counterpart terminal device and transmits a connection instruction message including a cell ID of the ground cell to the counterpart terminal device.