Connectivity Solutions for Hybrid Air-Ground Sensor Networks

The hybrid air-ground sensor networks and the radio technologies used to ensure their interconnectivity will encounter various challenges raised by spectrum availability in non-licensed bands. The interconnectivity of drones and the sensor networks has to find right spectrum resources to allow its safe and secure operation, while the coordination and harmonization of the spectrum is performed according to regulations in place. Satellite or 3G/4G/LTE networks are bringing significant advantages like connectiona safety and reliability, system scalability and versatility. Since IoT is highly supported by mobile operators, it's worth considering the opportunity that next generation mobile networks might provide simultaneous services to terrestrial and airborne sensor networks to ensure proper performance, reliability and resilience of hybrid air-ground sensor networks. The experiment presented in this article comes to validate the reliability of the connection between a drone and the terrestrial 3G/4G/LTE base station, while trying to identify scenarios in which the signal lost will affect the command and control syvstem of the drone.