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US-20260128784-A1 - APPARATUSES AND METHODS FOR FACILITATING A UNIVERSAL, WORLDWIDE DATABASE WITH INTEGRATED SATELLITE CONSTELLATION COVERAGE

US20260128784A1US 20260128784 A1US20260128784 A1US 20260128784A1US-20260128784-A1

Abstract

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, predicting an amount of demand for a communication service, based on the predicting, determining that a communication bandwidth available via a first base station of a first network is unable to satisfy the amount of demand, based on the determining, scheduling a first satellite of a constellation of satellites to provide at least a portion of the communication service, resulting in a schedule, and providing the at least a portion of the communication service in accordance with the schedule. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Inventors

  • Adrian Moore
  • Venson Shaw

Assignees

  • AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I, L.P.

Dates

Publication Date
20260507
Application Date
20241107

Claims (20)

  1. 1 . A device, comprising: a processing system including a processor; and a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising: identifying a communication service in association with a user equipment, resulting in a first identification; determining, based on the first identification, that a first amount of bandwidth available to the user equipment via a first resource of a terrestrial network is less than a first threshold, resulting in a first determination; selecting, based on the first determination, a resource of a non-terrestrial network (NTN), resulting in a first selected resource of the NTN; and provisioning a first portion of the communication service to the user equipment via the first selected resource of the NTN.
  2. 2 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise: provisioning a second portion of the communication service to the user equipment via the first resource.
  3. 3 . The device of claim 2 , wherein the provisioning of the first portion of the communication service utilizes Fifth Generation (5G) New Radio (NR) technology.
  4. 4 . The device of claim 3 , wherein the provisioning of the second portion of the communication service utilizes Fourth Generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology.
  5. 5 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the first selected resource of the NTN includes a satellite.
  6. 6 . The device of claim 5 , wherein the satellite is a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite, and wherein the selecting comprises selecting the LEO satellite from amongst a plurality of LEO satellites.
  7. 7 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise: determining a first time when the resource of the NTN is going to enter a viewing radius of an antenna of the first resource, resulting in a second determination, wherein the selecting is further based on the second determination.
  8. 8 . The device of claim 7 , wherein the operations further comprise: determining a second time when the resource of the NTN is going to depart the viewing radius of the antenna of the first resource, resulting in a third determination, wherein the selecting is further based on the third determination.
  9. 9 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the selecting is based on one or more factors, and wherein the one or more factors pertain to: connection availability, carrier to noise ratio, signal strength, throughput, packet round trip delay, bit error rate, sector capacity, data link integrity, security, or any combination thereof.
  10. 10 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise: selecting another resource of the NTN, resulting in a second selected resource of the NTN; and provisioning a second portion of the communication service to the user equipment via the second selected resource of the NTN.
  11. 11 . The device of claim 10 , wherein the provisioning of the second portion of the communication service occurs subsequent to the provisioning of the first portion of the communication service.
  12. 12 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the selecting of the another resource of the NTN occurs prior to the provisioning of the first portion of the communication service.
  13. 13 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise: subsequent to the provisioning of the first portion of the communication service, determining that a second amount of bandwidth available to the user equipment via the first resource of the terrestrial network is greater than a second threshold, resulting in a second determination.
  14. 14 . The device of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise: based on the second determination, releasing the resource of the NTN to a pool of resources of the NTN.
  15. 15 . The device of claim 13 , wherein the first threshold and the second threshold are different.
  16. 16 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising: predicting an amount of demand for a communication service; based on the predicting, determining that a communication bandwidth available via a first base station of a first network is unable to satisfy the amount of demand; based on the determining, scheduling a first satellite of a constellation of satellites to provide at least a portion of the communication service, resulting in a schedule; and providing the at least a portion of the communication service in accordance with the schedule.
  17. 17 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the scheduling of the first satellite is based on a determination of a first arrival time of the first satellite relative to a viewing radius of an antenna associated with the first base station and a first departure time of the first satellite relative to the viewing radius of the antenna.
  18. 18 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the scheduling of the first satellite is based on a determination of a second arrival time of a second satellite of the constellation of satellites relative to the viewing radius of the antenna associated with the first base station and a second departure time of the second satellite relative to the viewing radius of the antenna, wherein the first arrival time is different from the second arrival time and the first departure time is different from the second departure time.
  19. 19 . A method, comprising: determining, by a processing system including a processor, a respective arrival time of each satellite included in a plurality of satellites relative to a viewing radius of a first antenna associated with a first base station of a terrestrial network, resulting in a first determination; determining, by the processing system, a respective departure time of each satellite included in the plurality of satellites relative to the viewing radius of the first antenna, resulting in a second determination; generating, by the processing system, a forecast of demand for communication services amongst a plurality of communication devices; and scheduling, by the processing system, a utilization of at least one satellite included in the plurality of satellites based on the first determination, the second determination, and the forecast.
  20. 20 . The method of claim 19 , comprising: determining, by the processing system, a respective arrival time of each satellite included in the plurality of satellites relative to a viewing radius of a second antenna associated with a second base station of the terrestrial network, resulting in a third determination; and determining, by the processing system, a respective departure time of each satellite included in the plurality of satellites relative to the viewing radius of the second antenna, resulting in a fourth determination, wherein the scheduling is further based on the third determination and the fourth determination, and wherein the at least one satellite is used in a conveyance of first data to a user equipment included in the plurality of communication devices, and wherein the first data is less critical relative to second data that is conveyed by the first base station to the user equipment without utilizing the at least one satellite.

Description

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE The subject disclosure relates to apparatuses and methods for facilitating a universal, worldwide database with integrated satellite constellation coverage. BACKGROUND Vast communication networks and systems, and a variety of communication services, may be utilized in provisioning communication services. Fifth Generation (5G) technology has increased over the last several years due to the increased bandwidth capabilities being delivered, lower latencies and other capabilities like bandwidth slicing. Most of the increase is attributed to end users in urban markets that are typically densely populated, and the economics of scale are favorable to justify the investment associated with the infrastructure needed to support 5G. However, in rural environments, the decision as to whether to invest in infrastructure can be a challenging, as the economics of scale often do not make it conducive for a service provider to provide higher speed bandwidth offerings delivered with 5G to less densely populated areas. Cost is the primary detractor for expanding 5G, as installing 5G infrastructure can be an expensive endeavor. It is not cost effective to build-out a network/system to support a limited amount of subscribers that are more spread out and require more towers to serve them relative to urban locations. In addition, in rural areas the terrain can also be an issue where there are often more natural obstructions limiting the propagation capabilities of antennas, making it difficult to reliably receive a wireless signal. Given the increased infrastructure costs and the propagation limitations associated with 5G that require more densely populated small cells, a Fourth Generation (4G) or 4G Non-Standalone (NSA) configuration may be more advantageous for rural applications/environments. The coverage for 4G or 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) can range for 10 to 20 miles, in comparison to 5G which can span up to 1000 feet. Thus, speed-tier offerings in rural or remote applications are extremely low/limited. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein: FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary, non-limiting embodiment of a communications network in accordance with various aspects described herein. FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating an example, non-limiting embodiment of a system in accordance with various aspects described herein. FIG. 2B depicts an illustrative embodiment of a method in accordance with various aspects described herein. FIG. 2C depicts a viewing radius associated with an antenna and a satellite in accordance with aspects of this disclosure. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example, non-limiting embodiment of a virtualized communication network in accordance with various aspects described herein. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example, non-limiting embodiment of a computing environment in accordance with various aspects described herein. FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example, non-limiting embodiment of a mobile network platform in accordance with various aspects described herein. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example, non-limiting embodiment of a communication device in accordance with various aspects described herein. DETAILED DESCRIPTION The subject disclosure describes, among other things, illustrative embodiments for scheduling resources associated with communication networks and systems based on a forecast/prediction of demand for the resources (or, analogously, demand for communication services) and an accessibility/availability of the resources. In some embodiments, availability/accessibility of a resource may be expressed in terms of an arrival time and/or a departure time of the resource relative to a viewing radius of an antenna. Other embodiments are described in the subject disclosure. One or more aspects of the subject disclosure include, in whole or in part, identifying a communication service in association with a user equipment, resulting in a first identification; determining, based on the first identification, that a first amount of bandwidth available to the user equipment via a first resource of a terrestrial network is less than a first threshold, resulting in a first determination; selecting, based on the first determination, a resource of a non-terrestrial network (NTN), resulting in a first selected resource of the NTN; and provisioning a first portion of the communication service to the user equipment via the first selected resource of the NTN. One or more aspects of the subject disclosure include, in whole or in part, predicting an amount of demand for a communication service; based on the predicting, determining that a communication bandwidth available via a first base station of a first network is unable to satisfy the amount of demand; based on the determining, scheduling a first satellite of a constellation of satellites to provid