US 12,451,017 B2
Universal uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) colony wireline wireless orchestration and automation management
Eshrat Huda, Hillsborough, NJ (US); David H. Lu, Morganville, NJ (US); and Moshiur Rahman, Marlboro, NJ (US)
Assigned to AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P., Atlanta, GA (US)
Filed by AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P., Atlanta, GA (US)
Filed on Oct. 5, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/960,449.
Prior Publication US 2024/0119845 A1, Apr. 11, 2024
Int. Cl. G08G 5/30 (2025.01); B64C 39/02 (2023.01)
CPC G08G 5/30 (2025.01) [B64C 39/024 (2013.01); B64U 2201/102 (2023.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A device, comprising:
a processing system including a processor, wherein the processing system is implemented in a core software-defined network (SDN) controller in a core network; and
a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:
determining a need to offload traffic for an access network based on communications from an access mobility function (AMF);
instructing a coordinator system to identify a colony of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) that is available to offload traffic for the access network, wherein the colony of UAVs includes a UAV configured as a portable SDN and one or more other UAVs,
wherein the coordinator system is configured to coordinate deployment of the colony of UAVs by transmitting flight routing instructions to the portable SDN;
based on identifying the colony of UAVs, causing the colony of UAVs to be deployed to an area associated with the access network; and
facilitating end-to-end (E2E) orchestration across the core network and the colony of UAVs by interacting with the portable SDN of the UAV via the coordinator system, the coordinator system providing a network interface between the portable SDN and the core SDN controller.