Technology Assessment for Radio Communication between UAV and Ground: Qualitative Study and Applications

Abstract

In this paper, we develop an analytic methodology to determine the best technology to carry the communication between an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and a ground control station (GCS). We assume herein that the UAV is performing its mission under nominal conditions. For this, we identify some relevant criteria that cover most use-cases. We propose a multi-criteria analysis to determine the best technology to carry the radiocommunication between the UAV and the GCS. In this work, we distinguish between the Control and Non-Payload Communication Channel (CNPC) and the Payload Channel. By studying two different missions, we emphasize that the technology assessment results depend on the use-case as well as the UAV scenario, and that for a same scenario the results for CNPC are different from the Payload communication. In this work, we are focused on the precise agriculture (PA) use-case, and the public safety (PS) use case. We present the assessment results in both Visual Line of Sight (VLOS), and Beyond Line of Sight (BVLOS) scenarios. The latter is very interesting because the communication UAV-GCS becomes of critical importance. I. INTRODUCTION AND RELATED WORKS Owing to their compact size, their reduced weight and increasing capabilities, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are nowadays used in a wide range of civil applications. Three typical categories of missions are identified [1]: UAV-aided ubiquitous coverage (e.g. in case of infrastructure damage and crowded areas), UAV-aided relaying (e.g. between frontline and command center for emergency responses), and UAV-aided information dissemination and data collection (e.g. for precision agriculture). To accomplish its mission, the UAV exchanges information with a Ground Control Station (GCS), through two communication channels: The control and non-payload communication (CNPC) channel and the payload channel. Both of them characterize the Air-to-Ground (AG) communication.

Threats from and Countermeasures for Unmanned Aerial and Underwater Vehicles

“…The remotely controlled multi-rotor and fixed-wing UAVs require a radio link [ 16 ]. The control radio link exists between the onboard UAV flight controller and the ground controller either directly, through satellites, or through other aerial vehicles in the vicinity.…”

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as a Source of Information Security Threats of Wireless Network

“…As it is already known, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) at the WRS-10 seminar in Geneva (World Radio communication Seminar 2010) decided that the term 4G could apply to technology LTE і WiMAX [16,17].…”

“…WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) -telecommunications technology designed to provide universal long-distance wireless communication for a wide range of devices (from workstations and laptops to mobile phones), based on the standard IEEE 802.16, which is also called Wireless MAN [16].…”

Towards SORA-Compliant BVLOS Communication

“…To allow flights under BVLOS conditions reliable communication is required. 5G is a promising technology that could provide reliable communication when fully implemented [7], [8]. The current cellular networks like 2G/3G/4G can be used for communication, however interference detection and mitigation should be improved and the reliability of the cellular network in an local area can be degraded when many UAS operate simultaneous.…”