Autonomous Tethered Drone Cell for IoT Connectivity in 6G Communications

The spatio-temporal patterns of mobile traffic demand due to human mobility and lifestyles are significant issue for efficient deployment of 6G mobile networks. A drone cell is a promising solution for provide flexible and on-demand connectivity. The existing works have assumed wireless fronthaul/backhaul links between a drone cell and a ground node such as millimeter wave (mmWave) links. The unstable aerial environments may deteriorate the communication quality in wireless links. The concept of tethered communication for moving nodes is a solution for establishing stable and high-bandwidth fronthaul/backhaul for drone cells. However, experimental results with real drones have not been reported so far. Therefore, this paper introduces the concept of the tethered drone cell and the first experimental results for 6G communications. We also propose the routing algorithm for a drone cell to autonomously move to the next destination. The feasibility of the proposed scheme was demonstrated via computer simulations and preliminary experimental results using real drones.