Patent ID: 8199722

Claim:
A method for selecting a ground station for communication with an aerial vehicle, the method comprising: receiving at an aerial vehicle one or more messages from one or more ground stations; storing one or more signal strength values corresponding to the one or more received messages in a data structure for each respective one or more ground stations received during a predefined time period; updating the data structure for each of the one or more ground stations; calculating an average of the signal strength values stored in each data structure to determine an average signal strength; comparing the average signal strength of each of the one or more ground stations; selecting which ground station the aerial vehicle is to communicate with based on predefined criteria; and adjusting the number of signal strength values stored in the data structures based on comparing the message traffic density for each of the one or more ground stations with a message traffic density level, wherein adjusting the number of signal strength values comprises: storing more signal strength values in the data structure corresponding to the one or more ground stations when the message traffic density between the aerial vehicle and the ground station is higher than the message traffic density level; and storing less signal strength values in the data structure corresponding to the one or more ground stations when the message traffic density between the aerial vehicle and the ground station is lower than the message traffic density level.