has conducted a 4G drone pilot at the BCN Drone Center in Moià near Barcelona,with the aim of defining a model of aerial coverage that allows the massive use of drones beyond the line of sight in a safe environment.
This pilot makes it possible to ensure that soon multiple drone flights can be made in the same air space below 400 feet (120 meters) in an organized manner, since currently mobile networks only offer coverage at ground level.
The service quality measures of the Vodafone network will allow defining the optimal coverage model so that 5G networks can provide service to thousands of drones simultaneously with guarantee of stability. In this way, they would be permanently connected and geolocated in real time and could be landed in case of access to restricted areas, such as airports or aerodromes.
First operator to control a drone through the network
Vodafone was the first operator to control and position a drone using the mobile telephony network, thanks to the RPS (Radio Positioning System) technology, which allows a very accurate estimation of the position of the SIM without the collaboration of the drone, providing an alternative source to the traditional one based on the GPS coordinates reported by the aircraft, which adds robustness and protection against possible attempts to forge or disable the GPS signal. The RPS system is a technology protected by Vodafone and published for free use by third parties, in order to accelerate the development of this sector by other players in the industry without any consideration.
This solution will allow driving the use of drones safely in different sectors of economic activity such as: logistics, fleet management and transport, agriculture, border surveillance, critical infrastructures, fields in which significant economic growth is expected in the coming years .
This technological advance would allow to have a solution to open and liberalize the management and use of drone traffic for professional activities; an aspect on which the European institutions have been working for years to find the balance between the development of the drone sector on a massive scale and the necessary safety in air traffic.
It is estimated that by 2050, drones flying at altitudes of up to 400 feet will represent 250 million flight hours, compared to only 33 million hours for manned aircraft in controlled airspace.
Source: Press Release (translation by Google)