Systems and methods for locating ground and air radio antennae for ground-to-air and air-to-air communication networks

1. A method for determining locations of telecommunication ground stations, the method comprising:

A) creating a heat map data set representing air traffic volume at grid units of a geographic region responsive to receiving air traffic data representing origin and destination locations for multiple flights and simulating each real or planned flight path associated with the geographic region and accumulating a total number of flight paths that pass through each of the grid units on the each real or planned flight path;

B) determining a ground station location at one of the grid units having associated therewith air traffic volume greater than that of others of the grid units;

C) assigning a communication range to the ground station based on a ground station antenna of the ground station;

D) modifying the heat map data set by excluding data representing all grid units that are determined to be within the communication range of the ground station location;

E) repeating B), C and D) until a predetermined quantity of ground station locations is determined; and

F) generating, as an output to a graphical display, a list of locations of determined ground station locations responsive to completion of E), the list including the predetermined quantity of ground station locations.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the heat map data set is created in accordance with a total number of hits for each of the grid units, wherein each of the hits is determined based on a circle of a predetermined radius around every aircraft associated with the multiple flights intersecting a corresponding one of the grid units.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the air traffic volume is represented by the total number of accumulated hits associated with each of the grid unit within a predetermined time period.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the air traffic data comprises data representing a number of seats associated with each of the flights.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the air traffic volume is represented by the total number of hits for each of the grid units modified by the number of seats for each of the flights.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the grid units corresponds to a grid square of approximately a 0.1 arc degree of space above the geographic region.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein simulating each real or planned flight path comprises simulating real flight paths based on real-time air traffic data.

8. A system for determining locations of telecommunication ground stations, the system comprising a processor and a memory coupled to the processor for storing data to be processed by the processor, the system further comprising:

A) program logic configured to create heat map data set representing air traffic volume at a plurality of grid units of a geographic region responsive to receiving air traffic data representing origin and destination locations for multiple flights and simulating each real or planned flight path associated with the geographic region and accumulating a total number of flight paths that pass through each of the grid units on the each real or planned flight path;

B) program logic configured to determine a ground station location at one of the grid units having associated therewith air traffic volume greater than that of others of the grid units;

C) program logic configured to assign a communication range to the ground station based on a ground station antenna of the ground station;

D) program logic configured to modify the heat map data set by excluding data representing representing all grid units that are determined to be within the communication range of the ground station location; and

E) iteratively repeating B), C and D) to generate, as an output to a graphical display, a list of determined ground station locations including each determined ground station location from execution of B) up to a predetermined number of ground station locations.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the air traffic volume is represented by the total number of accumulated hits for each of the grid units within a predetermined time period, wherein each of the hits is determined based on a circle of a predetermined radius around every aircraft associated with the multiple flights intersecting a corresponding one of the grid units.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the air traffic data comprises data representing a number of seats associated with each of the flights.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the air traffic volume is represented by the total number of hits for each of the grid units modified by the number of seats for each of the flights.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein simulating each real or planned flight path comprises simulating real flight paths based on real-time air traffic data.

13. A computer program product for use with an computer system operatively, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer useable medium having embodied therein program code comprising:

A) program code for creating a heat map data set representing air traffic volume at grid units of a geographic region responsive to receiving air traffic data representing origin and destination locations for multiple flights and simulating each real or planned flight path associated with the geographic region and accumulating a total number of flight paths that pass through each of the grid units on the each real or planned flight path;

B) program code for determining a ground station location at one of the grid units having associated therewith air traffic volume greater than that of others of the grid units;

C) program code for assigning a communication range to the ground station based on a ground station antenna of the ground station;

D) program code for modifying the heat map data set by excluding data representing representing all grid units that are determined to be within the communication range of the ground station location; and

E) program code for iteratively repeating B), C and D) to generate, as an output to a graphical display, a list of determined ground station locations including each determined ground station location from execution of B) up to a predetermined number of ground station locations.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein simulating each real or planned flight path comprises simulating real flight paths based on real-time air traffic data.