Patent ID: 11876594
Assignee: SMARTSKY NETWORKS LLC
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A network device comprising a beamforming control module configured to interface with respective antenna arrays of one or more network base stations to generate directionally steerable beams, the beamforming control module comprising processing circuitry configured to:
receive fixed position information indicative of a fixed geographic location of a first base station and a second base station;
receive dynamic position information indicative of a three dimensional position of an aircraft having a communication node thereon, the dynamic position information indicating that the aircraft will move from a coverage area associated with the first base station to a coverage area associated with the second base station at a future time;
determine a future expected relative position of the aircraft relative to the first base station and the second base station based on the fixed position information and the dynamic position information at the future time; and
provide instructions to direct formation of a steerable beam focused at the future expected relative position, the steerable beam having both azimuth and elevation angle widths of less than five degrees from an antenna array of the second base station to the aircraft based on the future expected relative position to facilitate a handover of the communication node from the first base station to the second base station.