The Sky Is Not the Limit: LTE for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Many use cases of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) require beyond visual line-of-sight (LOS) communications. Mobile networks offer wide area, high speed, and secure wireless connectivity, which can enhance control and safety of UAV operations and enable beyond visual LOS use cases. In this article, we share some of our experience in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) connectivity for low altitude small UAVs. We first identify the typical airborne connectivity requirements and characteristics, highlight the different propagation conditions for UAVs and mobiles on the ground with measurement and ray tracing results, and present simulation results to shed light on the feasibility of providing LTE connectivity for UAVs. We also present several ideas on potential enhancements for improving LTE connectivity performance and identify fruitful avenues for future research.