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Abstract
Widely deployed cellular networks are an attractive solution to provide large scale radio connectivity to unmanned aerial vehicles. One main prerequisite is that co-existence and optimal performance for both aerial and terrestrial users can be provided. Today's cellular networks are, however, not designed for aerial coverage, and deployments are primarily optimized to provide good service for terrestrial users. These considerations, in combination with the strict regulatory requirements, lead to extensive research and standardization efforts to ensure that the current cellular networks can enable reliable operation of aerial vehicles in various deployment scenarios. In this paper, we investigate the performance of aerial radio connectivity in a typical rural area network deployment using extensive channel measurements and system simulations. First, we highlight that downlink and uplink radio interference play a key role, and yield relatively poor performance for the aerial traffic, when load is high in the network. Second, we analyze two potential terminal side interference mitigation solutions: interference cancellation and antenna beam selection. We show that each of these can improve the overall, aerial and terrestrial, system performance to a certain degree, with up to 30% throughput gain, and an increase in the reliability of the aerial radio connectivity to over 99%. Further, we introduce and evaluate a novel downlink inter-cell interference coordination mechanism applied to the aerial command and control traffic. Our proposed coordination mechanism is shown to provide the required aerial downlink performance at the cost of 10% capacity degradation in the serving and interfering cells.
Original language | English |
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Journal | IEEE Access |
Volume | 6 |
Pages (from-to) | 12304-12317 |
Number of pages | 14 |
ISSN | 2169-3536 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 22 Feb 2018 |
Bibliographical note
European Union (EU) Horizon 2020, Drone Critical Communications (DroC2om ), Grant Agreement number 763601Keywords
- aerial vehicles
- cellular network
- LTE
- 3D coverage
- drone
- interference management
- propagation channel
- UAV
- DroC2om
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'How to ensure reliable connectivity for aerial vehicles over cellular networks'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
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DroC2om: Drone Critical Communications
Sørensen, T. B. & Amorim, R. M. D.
01/09/2017 → 31/08/2019
Project: Research
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Performance Enhancements for LTE-Connected UAVs: Experiments and Simulations
Amorim, R. M. D., Kovacs, I., Wigard, J. & Sørensen, T. B., 2021, UAV Communications for 5G and Beyond. Zeng, Y., Guvenc, I., Zhang, R., Geraci, G. & W. Matolak, D. (eds.). 1 ed. Wiley, p. 139-161 23 p.Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
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Interference analysis for UAV connectivity over LTE using aerial radio measurements
Kovacs, I., Amorim, R. M. D., Nguyen, H. C., Wigard, J. & Mogensen, P. E., 27 Sept 2017, IEEE 86th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC-Fall), 2017. IEEE, 5 p.Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/conference proceeding › Article in proceeding › Research › peer-review
48 Citations (Scopus) -
Machine-Learning Identification of Airborne UAV-UEs Based on LTE Radio Measurements
Amorim, R. M. D., Wigard, J., Nguyen, H. C., Kovacs, I. & Mogensen, P. E., Dec 2017, Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps), 2017 IEEE. IEEE, 6 p.Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/conference proceeding › Article in proceeding › Research › peer-review
14 Citations (Scopus)