Do Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Cause Harmful Interference to Ground Wireless Network Deployments?

Abstract

With the recent proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), it is unclear what the impact is of interference from UAVs to ground deployments. In this paper we present a study of the interference from UAV transmitters to victim ground receivers operating in LTE and Wi-Fi bands, for a real large-scale scenario in Manhattan. We perform extensive propagation simulations in WinProp for a large number of transmitters and outdoor and indoor receivers at different locations. Our results suggest that outdoor LTE receivers could suffer from harmful interference, which has potential future regulatory implications. By contrast, outdoor Wi-Fi receivers, and indoor LTE and Wi-Fi receivers are less likely to be affected by harmful interference from UAVs.