TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a system, method and a controller for controlling relay stations of a wireless link.

BACKGROUND

The market for drones, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), is quickly expanding, both with respect to number of drones, types of drones and use cases, or applications, where drones can be used. UAVs are therefore rapidly becoming an everyday presence, and it is expected that they will play an important part in our future. However, already available or planned use cases include e.g. delivery services, aerial photography and film making, remote sensing for agriculture, city planning, civil engineering, public safety support and rescue services. There are many types of UAVs available on the market, that can be remotely controlled, using e.g. Wi-Fi or some proprietary radio access. Many UAVs are also not only capable of communicating different types of data, sensing data, and/or operating autonomously, but also of analysing data collected by sensors or captured by a camera. UAVs can also be used as mobile relay stations between ground-based nodes, such as e.g. radio base stations and ground based terminals, or serve as mobile radio base stations, thereby providing cellular or wireless coverage to users which are located within range of the UAVs.

U.S. Pat. No. 9,313,667B1 disclose a method for controlling a plurality of UAVs, providing a communication link, from a supervising UAV.

WO2016190793 disclose a method for adjusting movement of a wireless transceiver, such as e.g. a UAV.

There is, however, a desire to provide a more flexible way of controlling a plurality of UAVs, when setting up a wireless link.

SUMMARY

It is an object of the present document to address, or at least alleviate, at least some of the problems described above.

According to one aspect, a system for controlling the Quality of Service, QoS, of a wireless link, providing a service from a transmitting entity to a receiving entity, is suggested. The system comprises a controller, capable of controlling a plurality of relay stations, including a plurality of mobile relay stations, and is configured to: receive data, decisive of the QoS of the hops of the wireless link; determine that, at least one QoS target-value of one of said hops is, or is predicted, not to be met, wherein such a determining is based on the received data; determine, for at least one of the mentioned hops, one or more actions for achieving that the at least one QoS target-value is met, and initiating, based on the determining of one or more actions, execution of the one or more determined actions.

She suggested system provides for a more flexible control of a wireless link, provided by a plurality of relay stations, comprising at least a number of mobile relay stations.

According to another aspect, a method for controlling the Quality of Service, QoS, of a wireless link, providing a service from a transmitting entity to a receiving entity, is suggested. The wireless link is being provided by a plurality of relay stations, including a plurality of mobile relay stations, and the method comprise: receiving data, decisive of the QoS of the hops of the wireless link; determining, based on the received data, that at least one QoS target-value of one of the mentioned hops is, or is predicted, not to be met; initiating, for at least one of the mentioned hops, determination of one or more actions for achieving that the at least one QoS target-value is met, and initiating, based on the determining of one or more actions execution of one or more of the determined actions.

According to yet another aspect, a computer program for controlling the Quality of Service (QoS) of a wireless link, as disclosed above, is suggested. More specifically, the computer program is configured to cause a controller to operate as a controller according to a method as disclosed above.

According to another embodiment, a computer program product, comprising a computer readable medium and a computer program as disclosed above, wherein the computer program is stored on the computer readable medium, is suggested.

According to yet another aspect, a controller for controlling the Quality of Service (QoS) of a wireless link, providing a service from a transmitting entity to a receiving entity, where the wireless link is being provided by a plurality of relay stations, including a plurality of mobile relay stations, is suggested. The controller is being configured to: receive data, decisive of the QoS of the hops of the wireless link; determine, based on the received data, that at least one QoS target-value of one of the hops is, or is predicted, not to be met; initiate, for at least one of the mentioned hops, determining of one or more actions for achieving that the at least one QoS target-value is met, and initiate, based on the determining of one or more actions, execution of one or more of the determined actions.

According to yet another aspect a controller for controlling the Quality of Service (QoS) of a wireless link, providing a service from a transmitting entity to a receiving entity, where the wireless link is provided by a plurality of relay stations, including a plurality of mobile relay stations, is suggested. The controller comprises processing circuitry and a memory, storing computer readable instructions, which, when executed by the processing circuitry, causes the controller to: receive, data, decisive of the QoS of the hops of the wireless link; determine, based on the received data, that at least one QoS target-value of one of the mentioned hops is, or is predicted, not to be met; initiate, for at least one of the mentioned hops, initiation of one or more actions for achieving that the at least one QoS target-value is met, and initiate, based on the determining of one or more actions, execution of one or more of the determined actions.

