The purpose of this article is to bestow the reader
with a timely study of UAV cellular communications, bridging
the gap between the 3GPP standardization status quo and the
more forward-looking research. Special emphasis is placed on
the downlink command and control (C&C) channel to aerial
users, whose reliability is deemed of paramount technological
importance for the commercial success of UAV cellular communications.
Through a realistic side-by-side comparison of two
network deployments ...
The purpose of this article is to bestow the reader
with a timely study of UAV cellular communications, bridging
the gap between the 3GPP standardization status quo and the
more forward-looking research. Special emphasis is placed on
the downlink command and control (C&C) channel to aerial
users, whose reliability is deemed of paramount technological
importance for the commercial success of UAV cellular communications.
Through a realistic side-by-side comparison of two
network deployments – a present-day cellular infrastructure
versus a next-generation massive MIMO system – a plurality
of key facts are cast light upon, with the three main ones
summarized as follows: (i) UAV cell selection is essentially driven
by the secondary lobes of a base station’s radiation pattern,
causing UAVs to associate to far-flung cells; (ii) over a 10 MHz
bandwidth, and for UAV heights of up to 300 m, massive MIMO
networks can support 100 kbps C&C channels in 74% of the
cases when the uplink pilots for channel estimation are reused
among base station sites, and in 96% of the cases without pilot
reuse across the network; (iii) supporting UAV C&C channels
can considerably affect the performance of ground users on
account of severe pilot contamination, unless suitable power
control policies are in place.
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