Overview of Drone Communication Requirements in 5G

Abstract

The ease of use and flexibility provided by drones or Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAV) is attracting different industries and researchers across domains (e.g., delivery, agriculture, security, etc.). Although maintaining a reliable and secure command and control communication channel is still an open challenge and primary limitation for using drones. Satellite and 5G are considered viable solutions for drone communication. In this survey paper, we have explored specifications and proposed enhancements in cellular technology specified by 3GPP to command and control UAVs. It also describes the required network Quality of Service (QoS) parameters for drone communication. Such as end-to-end latency to send and receive a command and control message (C2), reliability, and message size. Along with these, it also emphasizes defining the reliability in terms of communication and navigation of UAVs, based on cellular technology 5G additional investigation and standardization should be executed.