UAV Height-Threshold Broadcasting for Stable Mobile Handover
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Solution Overview
Problem
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) experience frequent handovers among base stations due to varying height thresholds, leading to ping-ponging, especially when traveling to high altitudes, as existing LTE mobile networks are optimized for terrestrial communication and do not account for UAV-specific altitude changes.
Innovation Solution
UAVs collect and transmit height thresholds from neighboring base stations to a network device, which determines a suitable target base station based on these thresholds, signal strength, quality, and available bandwidth to perform a controlled handover.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If base stations use fixed height thresholds for UAV communication, then communication stability is improved, but handover frequency increases causing ping-ponging
Solution Approach 1:
The network device collects height thresholds from multiple neighboring base stations in advance and stores them in a database before handover is needed. When a UAV approaches a height threshold, the network device quickly queries the pre-collected thresholds and determines the target base station, avoiding real-time collection delays and reducing ping-ponging handovers.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically selects target base stations based on the UAV's current height and the pre-collected height thresholds of neighboring base stations. The network device determines which base station's height threshold the UAV is approaching and proactively initiates handover to that base station, adapting the handover decision to the UAV's dynamic flight state.
2Ease of operation
If base stations broadcast height thresholds to UAVs, then handover control is improved, but network device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The network device extracts and collects height threshold information from multiple neighboring base stations and stores it centrally in a database. This separates the threshold collection function from the handover decision function, allowing base stations to simply broadcast their thresholds while the network device handles the complex task of collecting, storing, and querying these thresholds for handover decisions.
3Measurement precision
If UAVs collect height thresholds from all neighboring base stations, then handover accuracy is improved, but data transmission overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The network device merges the height threshold information from multiple neighboring base stations into a single centralized database. Instead of UAVs collecting and transmitting threshold data from each base station separately, the network device consolidates all threshold information in one location, reducing redundant data transmission while maintaining accurate handover decisions.
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, providing instructions to an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), via a serving base station, to collect target height thresholds of target base stations. The UAV receives the target height thresholds from the target base stations, and transmits the target height thresholds to a network device, via the serving base station. Further embodiments can include determining a current height of the UAV exceeds a serving height threshold of the serving base station, selecting a first target base station from the target base stations based on the determination and a first target height threshold of the group of target height thresholds of the first target base station, and providing instructions to the serving base station to perform handover of the UAV from the serving base station to the first target base station based on the selection. Other embodiments are disclosed.