Method for Detection of Airborne UEs based on LTE Radio Measurements

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are expected to be connected through cellular networks. As the radio characteristics are different for airborne UEs compared to terrestrial UEs, it is beneficial to identify whether a UE is airborne (on a UAV) or on the ground, such that interference and mobility management can be optimized for UAVs separately from terrestrial UEs. In this paper, we present a classification algorithm using existing LTE UE radio measurements to identify whether a UE is airborne or terrestrial. The method is verified with LTE measurements made in a rural area at different heights, including terrestrial measurements and it is shown that the method in 3 out of the 4 different measurement cases can detect a UE to be airborne with 99% likelihood, while the fourth case still can classify a UE correctly in 95% of the cases. The right classification can further be improved by taking multiple consecutive samples into account before making a classification decision.