Performance Enhancements for LTE‐Connected UAVs: Experiments and Simulations

This chapter explains that existing long‐term evolution networks and future 5G networks are able to ensure reliable command and control (C2) communication to drones and play an important role in the provisioning of end‐to‐end reliability for drone communications, similar to other use cases requiring high reliability. In unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) scenarios, especially for C2 link performance in cellular networks, it is extremely valuable to determine how the cellular radio modem on the UAV would perceive the radio channel in the existing cellular networks. The chapter focuses on the C2 link and the possibility of providing reliable communication over cellular networks, while also having a look at the ability of cellular networks to provide high uplink throughputs. To understand how existing cellular networks work when users are in the air, the chapter discusses the propagation characteristics for drones.