Forecasting Spectrum Demand for UAVs Served by Dedicated Allocation in Cellular Networks

Abstract

In this paper, the usage of dedicated portions of cellular spectrum to provide the high-reliable Command and Control (C2) link for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is evaluated. Simulations are performed using data settings of a real operating Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network in Denmark, in order to assess the reliability of the C2 link. Up to date databases of drone registrations and market projections are used to infer the drone densities and estimate the future traffic demand. Based on these estimations, network capacity results show that, deploying a sparse network with reservation of 1.4 MHz is sufficient for most cases according to current demands. In the next 20 years, the increase in demand can be followed by a continuous deployment of sites and an increase in the bandwidth up to 5 MHz. The paper also presents a discussion about which solutions can be used to further boost network capacity, and help to achieve high reliability even for the most stringent traffic demand cases.