VTC 2017 Fall, industry track panel keynote presentation by Attila Takacs on Drone Traffic Management over Mobile Networks.
Technology Challenges in Enabling Safe Drones in Urban Environments Panel Summary—Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are a profoundly disruptive technology poised to impact positively and substantially several industries. UAVs will reshape economic, social, security, environmental and political landscapes over the decades to come with PwC predicting that the addressable market value of drone powered solutions is over $127 billion. Current Air traffic control (ATC) systems cannot scale sufficiently to include UAV and provide command, control and communications (C3) infrastructure. NASA, with assistance from a confederation of industrial affiliates and partners, is developing an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) system to facilitate a framework for low altitude UAV operations and this is also being addressed at global level by GUTMA (Global UTM Association). It is envisioned that terrestrial cellular infrastructure will also provide coverage and C3 services to UAVs to enable beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations. There are several challenges from a communications perspective in integrating UAVs to the terrestrial cellular network and to ensure their coexistence with terrestrial, commercial cellular users. Low altitude UAV operational complexities and traffic management, detect-and-avoid (DAA) challenges in urban and suburban environments, enabling end-to-end security, remote identification and tracking, acute differences in propagation conditions and interference patterns between terrestrial base stations and UAVs compared with terrestrial mobiles, higher mobility and velocity, stringent obligations in reliability and safety, ultra-low latency link for C3 are some of the elemental themes that require convincing answers. We discuss core principles in communications, UTM, end-to-end security and DAA to facilitate safe integration of UAVs into National Air Space.
2. SCOPE
High Altitude Platform
Systems (HAPS)
Commercial
Jet Aircraft
(for reference)
Medium Altitude
Long-Endurance
UAV
Low Altitude
Small UAVs
Low Earth and GEO
Satellites
~60,000 ft.
~30,000 ft.
~10,000 ft.
200-400 ft.
Ground Level
Not To Scale
~600,000 ft.
& above
Special
Airspace
Requirements
starting at
1000ft.
+ over mobile networks
3. Adding Mobile Connectivity
Airspace information
Alarms and notifications
Telemetry reports and logs
2 Connected GCS
Enhancing safety of operations and enabling BVLOS operation
Command and Control (C2)
Telemetry
1
Direct Radio
No mobile network
connection Telemetry and tracking
Identification/authentication/authorization
Enforce compliance
BVLOS operation
3 Connected GCS and UAV
Airspace information
Alarms and notifications
Telemetry reports and logs
4. UTM services over Mobile
› Mobile networks are uniquely
positioned to support many of the
requirements
› Based on a proven, global
standard technology
› Cost efficiently enabling UAS
operations by utilizing existing
infrastructure
Location service –
Mobile Positioning
System (MPS)
LTE and 5G radio
connectivity
5. › Is coverage sufficient?
– Drones may be served by the sidelobes of BS antennas due to down-tilted BS antennas
› How to deal with interference?
– With close-to-free-space propagation in the sky, drones may generate more uplink
interference to the network while experiencing more downlink interference
› How to optimize mobility support?
– Drone cell association patterns are quite different from ground mobile devices
CHALLENGES in the sky
0m 50m 100m 300m
Cell association pattern
at different heights
*We have made our initial findings public: The Sky Is Not the Limit: LTE for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
6. › In 3GPP RAN#75 (March 2017), Ericsson submitted a joint study item proposal
with NTT Docomo to enhance LTE support for drones
– RP-170779: supported by 35 companies including major network vendors, major UE
vendors, and operators worldwide
› Objectives of the 3GPP study item*
– Assess the performance of LTE networks for connected drones
– Identify performance enhancing solutions
– Drone identification
The 3GPP effort
“Rogue” drone detection
How to detect a drone carrying a cellular module that is
only certified for terrestrial operation?
*3GPP TR 36.777, Enhanced LTE support for aerial vehicles.
7. Flight
Information
Management
System (FIMS) -
FAA
UAS Service
Supplier
UAS Service
Supplier
UAS
Service
Supplier (USS)
National Airspace
System - ATM
NAS Data Sources Supplemental Data Service ProviderSupplemental Data Service ProviderSupplemental Data Service Provider
Public
Safety
Public UAS
Operator
UTM
FAA
Development &
Deployment
Industry
Development &
Deployment
UAS
UAS
Operator
UAS
…
OTDOA
(Observed Time
Difference Of Arrival)
Connecting UTM with MPS
3GPP MPS
LCS
Client
E-UTRANUTRANGERAN
Le
Lh/SLh
MME
2G-
SGSN
2G-
MSC
3G-
SGSN
MSC
Server
AGb
Lg
Lg
Lgd
Lg
Lgd
Lg
S1lu lu
SLg
GMLC
HSS
8. MPS Use-Case Examples
Locating and tracking compliant drones
– Compliant drones are streaming telemetry data to UTM
– In lieu of low altitude radar, no way to cross-check if the coordinates are valid
– Utilize Mobile Positioning System to validate telemetry data: if telemetry data provided by the
drone is within the MPS estimate, all clear
– If MPS and telemetry deviates warnings/alarms can be triggered
“Rogue” drone locate and tracking
– “Rogue” drone: airborne UE without appropriate subscription
– System detects airborne usage (e.g., radio characteristics, mobility pattern), then MPS
system is triggered to locate UE
– Dynamic no fly zone is setup around “rogue” drone to avoid collisions, allowing compliant
drones to adjust flight missions accordingly
9. › New and exciting applications for drones are emerging
– A potential business area for mobile operators
› Mobile networks will play an indispensable role
– Wide-area and secure wireless connectivity can enhance control and safety of drone
operations
› Existing LTE networks can support initial drone deployments
– LTE evolution and 5G will provide more efficient connectivity for wide-scale drone
deployments
Key Take Away