Network access using mobile base stations

摘要

A method of operating a radio station is provided. One or more capability announcement messages are received from one or more other radio stations. The one or more capability announcement messages are analyzed to gather analyzed communication-capability information indicative of the one or more other radio stations that are available for communication and respective communication capabilities of the one or more other radio stations. Subsequently, a station map, maintained locally at the radio station, is updated with the communication-capability information. The station map is then used to select a target radio station for accessing a communication network.

主权项

1. A radio station comprising:
a processor; a memory coupled to the processor; and at least one communication interface coupled to the processor, the at least one communication interface comprising a radio communication interface, wherein the processor is configured to: receive one or more capability announcement messages from one or more other radio stations, wherein a given capability announcement message comprises an identifier of a given radio station that transmitted the given capability announcement message and a network-access status of the given radio station; analyze the one or more capability announcement messages to gather analyzed communication-capability information indicative of the one or more other radio stations that are available for communication and respective communication capabilities of the one or more other radio stations; determine a propagation mode of each of the one or more capability announcement messages to identify whether a capability announcement message is a surface wave or a sky wave: update a station map, maintained locally at the radio station, with the communication-capability information; use the station map to select a target radio station for accessing a communication network; and transmit one or more capability announcement messages to other radio stations; wherein when analyzing the one or more capability announcement messages, the processor is configured to determine the propagation mode of each of the one or more capability announcement messages by performing a correlation function between a code preamble and a received radio signal.