US-20260129463-A1 - ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RADIO ACCESS NETWORK SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR MODELING AND PREDICTING NON-TERRESTRIAL WIRELESS COVERAGE

US20260129463A1US 20260129463 A1US20260129463 A1US 20260129463A1US-20260129463-A1

Abstract

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, receiving sensor information from a plurality of user equipment (UE) devices attached to a cellular network, the sensor information determined by a respective UE device based on a presence of satellite coverage of a non-terrestrial network detected by the respective UE device at a respective location of the respective UE device, predicting future coverage areas for the satellite coverage of the non-terrestrial network, wherein the predicting future coverage areas is based on the sensor information, and providing, to a remote UE in an area with no coverage from the cellular network, information about future coverage areas and future coverage times for the satellite coverage of the non-terrestrial network to enable the remote UE to schedule future network access with the non-terrestrial network. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Inventors

Daniel Vivanco
David Ross Beppler

Assignees

AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I, L.P.
AT&T Technical Services Company, Inc.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20241105

Claims (20)

1 . A method, comprising: receiving, by a processing system including a processor, from a plurality of user equipment (UE) devices in communication with a terrestrial network, information about coverage by a non-terrestrial network in a current coverage area of the non-terrestrial network; predicting, by the processing system, future coverage areas of the non-terrestrial network, wherein the predicting is based on the information about the coverage by the non-terrestrial network in the current coverage area; and providing, by the processing system, coverage information about predicted future coverage areas to remote UE devices in areas with no coverage from the terrestrial network, the coverage information enabling the remote UE device to connect to the non-terrestrial network when the coverage by the non-terrestrial network becomes available for the remote UE devices.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the providing coverage information about the predicted future coverage areas to the remote UE devices comprises: providing, by the processing system, information about a proximity to a constellation edge for a remote UE of the UE devices, wherein the constellation edge defines a limit of the coverage by the non-terrestrial network at a location of the remote UE; and providing, by the processing system, information about a proximity to a gap in the coverage by the non-terrestrial network at the location of the remote UE, the proximity to a constellation edge and the information about the proximity to the gap for use by the remote UE to control activity by the remote UE in a high-power active mode for communication with the non-terrestrial network.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the providing coverage information about the predicted future coverage areas to the remote UE devices comprises: providing, by the processing system, information about a likelihood of coverage from the coverage by the non-terrestrial network at the location of the remote UE; and providing, by the processing system, information about a gap duration corresponding to a time duration of the gap in the coverage by the non-terrestrial network at the location of the remote UE, the information about the gap duration for use by the remote UE to time a duration of a low power sleep mode during the gap in the coverage by the non-terrestrial network at the location of the remote UE.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the predicting the future coverage areas of the non-terrestrial network comprises: estimating, by the processing system, a likelihood of detecting a satellite signal by a remote UE when the remote UE is at a UE location in an area with no coverage from the terrestrial network and only the coverage by the non-terrestrial network is available.
5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the predicting the future coverage areas of the non-terrestrial network further comprises: estimating, by the processing system, a gap duration corresponding to a time duration of a gap in the coverage by the non-terrestrial network at the UE location of the remote UE.
6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the predicting the future coverage areas of the non-terrestrial network further comprises: modeling, by the processing system, a size and a shape of a future coverage area of the non-terrestrial network, wherein the modeling is based on the information about the coverage by the non-terrestrial network in the current coverage area; and modeling, by the processing system, movement of the future coverage area of the non-terrestrial network to areas including the future coverage areas.
7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the modeling the size and the shape of the future coverage area of the non-terrestrial network comprises: establishing by the processing system, a coverage grid approximating the shape of the future coverage area of the non-terrestrial network, the coverage grid including a plurality of quadrants; and assigning, by the processing system, a likelihood of coverage value to each quadrant of the plurality of quadrants, the likelihood of coverage value corresponding to the coverage by the non-terrestrial network in the quadrant when the remote UE is in a position corresponding to the quadrant of the coverage grid when the future coverage area corresponds to location of the remote UE.
8 . The method of claim 7 , comprising: assigning, by the processing system, a gap duration value to each quadrant of the plurality of quadrants, the gap duration value corresponding to a time duration of a gap in the coverage by the non-terrestrial network in the quadrant when the remote UE is in a position corresponding to the quadrant of the coverage grid when the future coverage area corresponds to the location of the remote UE; assigning, by the processing system, a proximity to gap value to each quadrant of the plurality of quadrants, the proximity to gap value corresponding to a distance of the remote UE from the gap in the coverage by the non-terrestrial network in the quadrant when the remote UE is in a position corresponding to the quadrant of the coverage grid when the future coverage area corresponds to the location of the remote UE; and assigning, by the processing system, a proximity to coverage edge value to each quadrant of the plurality of quadrants, the proximity to coverage edge value corresponding to a distance of the remote UE from an edge the future coverage area of the coverage by the non-terrestrial network in the quadrant when the remote UE is in a position corresponding to the quadrant of the coverage grid when the future coverage area corresponds to location of the remote UE.
9 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising: receiving, by the processing system, current location information for the remote UE; locating, by the processing system, the remote UE in a current quadrant of the plurality of quadrants of the coverage grid; determining, by the processing system, coverage parameters for the remote UE at the current quadrant of the coverage grid; and providing, by the processing system, information about the coverage parameters with the coverage information to the remote UE.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the providing coverage information about predicted future coverage areas comprises: providing, by the processing system, information about time periods when the coverage by the non-terrestrial network is not available for the remote UE devices to limit searching for coverage and battery drain by the remote UE devices.
11 . 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: obtaining sensor information that is collected by a plurality of user equipment (UE) devices, the sensor information about a presence of satellite coverage in a non-terrestrial network at respective locations of respective UE devices; modeling a configuration of a coverage area of the satellite coverage, wherein the modeling is based on the sensor information; receiving, from a remote UE, information about a current location of the remote UE, the remote UE in communication with the non-terrestrial network; and providing, to the remote UE, coverage information for future satellite coverage of the non-terrestrial network, the coverage information to enable the remote UE to schedule low-power operations during times when the future satellite coverage of the non-terrestrial network is not available at the current location of the remote UE.
12 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the obtaining the sensor comprises: receiving, from respective UE devices, satellite identification information for a satellite of the non-terrestrial network; and receiving, from the respective UE devices, respective location information for the respective UE devices.
13 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise: directing the respective UE devices to detect a pilot signal of the satellite without attaching to the non-terrestrial network; obtaining, from the respective UE devices, pilot signal presence information in the sensor information based on a detection of the pilot signal of the satellite; and obtaining, from the respective UE devices, no pilot signal information in the sensor information based on no detection of the pilot signal of the satellite.
14 . The device of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise: receiving, from the respective UE devices, respective signal strength information for the pilot signal of the satellite.
15 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise: communicating with the plurality of UE devices over a terrestrial network associated with the non-terrestrial network.
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: receiving sensor information from a plurality of user equipment (UE) devices attached to a cellular network, the sensor information determined by a respective UE device based on a presence of satellite coverage of a non-terrestrial network detected by the respective UE device at a respective location of the respective UE device; predicting future coverage areas for the satellite coverage of the non-terrestrial network, wherein the predicting future coverage areas is based on the sensor information; and providing, to a remote UE, information about future coverage areas and future coverage times for the satellite coverage of the non-terrestrial network to enable the remote UE to schedule future network access with the non-terrestrial network.
17 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the predicting future coverage areas comprises: establishing a coverage grid corresponding to a shape of a coverage area for the satellite coverage of a non-terrestrial network, the coverage grid including a plurality of quadrants; and assigning a likelihood of coverage value to each quadrant of the plurality of quadrants, the likelihood of coverage determined based on the sensor information.
18 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the assigning a likelihood of coverage value comprises: assigning a relatively higher likelihood of coverage value to quadrants near a center of the coverage area; and assigning a relatively lower likelihood of coverage value to quadrants near edges of the coverage area.
19 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise: receiving, from the remote UE, location information corresponding to a current location of the remote UE; determining movement of the future coverage areas at future coverage times for the satellite coverage of the non-terrestrial network at the current location of the remote UE, the movement of the future coverage areas due to orbiting of a constellation of satellite of the non-terrestrial network; locating the remote UE in a current quadrant of the coverage grid; and determining coverage parameters for the UE at the current quadrant, wherein the determining the coverage parameters is based on the likelihood of coverage value to each quadrant.
20 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the information about the future coverage areas and the future coverage times for the satellite coverage of the non-terrestrial network comprises: providing the coverage parameters over the non-terrestrial network to the remote UE.

Description

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE The subject disclosure relates to a system and method for estimating and notifying satellite cell coverage to terrestrial user equipment (UEs) including Internet of Things (IoT) devices. BACKGROUND User equipment including IoT devices may operate on both a terrestrial cellular communications network and a non-terrestrial satellite communications network. When no terrestrial network is available, such as in a remote location, the non-terrestrial network may be available as an alternative for communication using the cellular radio components of the user equipment. However, satellite coverage is not always available due to orbiting patterns and schedules of low-Earth orbit satellites. A satellite constellation may pass over the location of the remotely located user equipment only infrequently. However, if the user equipment is consistently monitoring for the presence of the satellites, the user equipment may drain the battery which powers the user equipment. 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 functioning within the communication network of FIG. 1 in accordance with various aspects described herein. FIG. 2B illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a communication system in accordance with various aspects described herein. FIG. 2C illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a model of non-terrestrial coverage in a communication system such as the communication system of FIG. 2A, in accordance with various aspects described herein. FIG. 2D depicts an illustrative embodiment of a method in accordance with various aspects described herein. 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 using user equipment devices attached to a cellular communication network as sensors to detect satellite presence at any given point and then to use aggregated presence data to predict where satellite coverage will be available to user equipment in areas outside the coverage of the cellular network for direct-to-satellite communication. Other embodiments are described in the subject disclosure. One or more aspects of the subject disclosure include receiving from a plurality of user equipment (UE) devices in communication with a terrestrial network, information about coverage by a non-terrestrial network in a current coverage area of the non-terrestrial network, predicting future coverage areas of the non-terrestrial network, wherein the predicting is based on the information about the coverage by the non-terrestrial network in the current coverage area, and providing coverage information about predicted future coverage areas to remote UE devices in areas with no coverage from the terrestrial network, the coverage information enabling the remote UE device to connect to the non-terrestrial network when the coverage by the non-terrestrial network becomes available for the remote UE devices. One or more aspects of the subject disclosure include receiving, from a plurality of user equipment (UE) devices, sensor information about a presence of satellite coverage of a non-terrestrial network at respective locations of respective UE devices, modeling a configuration of a coverage area of the satellite coverage, wherein the modeling is based on the sensor information, receiving, from a remote UE, information about a current location of the remote UE, the remote UE in communication with the non-terrestrial network, and providing, to the remote UE, coverage information for future satellite coverage of the non-terrestrial network, the coverage information to enable the remote UE to schedule low-power operations during times when the future satellite coverage of the non-terrestrial network is not available at the current location of the remote UE. One or more aspects of the subject disclosure include receiving sensor information from a plurality of user equipment (UE) devices attached to a cellular network, the sensor information determined by a respective UE device based on a presence of satellite coverage of a non-terrestrial netw