The Role of 5G in the Drone Industry
Author — Krishang Gupta
Technological advancements in the aerospace industry and the cellular telecommunications industry have had a major role in the widespread innovations and developments in Unmanned Aerial Systems(UAS).
The global drone market size in the year 2022 was approximated to USD 30 billion, as per the Commercial Drone Market Size, Share, and Trends Analysis Report by Product (Fixed-wing, Rotary Blade, Hybrid), By Application, By End-use, By Region, and Segment Forecasts, 2023–2030, and with a compound annual growth rate of about 39%, the sector aims to expand further till at least the next few decades to come.
Investors all across the globe seek to invest in UAS businesses as they cater to sectors that guarantee a high return on investment (ROI), such as the transportation industry, entertainment industry, as well as Agriculture Industry. In addition to this, healthcare, surveillance and real-estate sectors have seen exponential growth in the usage of these devices since drones offer real-time uplink and downlink of data, are a safer option for surveillance and curtail human intervention at accidental locations to a very large extent.
The Drone industry is a relatively newer industry with a lot of emerging players in the market aiming to reap high revenues from the market. With the increase in the number of active drones, especially with-in the last few years, traffic management has always been a great concern that has required the concerned authorities to innovate in the field and a build a system that replicates the Air Traffic Control in manned missions, thereby coming up with the Unmanned Aircraft Traffic Management or the UTM.
Cellular Networks, especially the new generation 5Gs, due to their promising high coverage, global acceptance and highly developed technologies are the best options for the manufacturers world-wide to set-up an automated, reliable and a carefully monitored aerial governance system for safe drone operations. These mobile networks add an extended layer of safety to the prevalent traffic management systems for low-altitude(about 100m) drone operations. They have not only made it quicker and easier for drone pilots and technicians to transfer data from the drones to a cloud based set-up and vice-versa but have also reduced the latency in the connection between the control unit and the flight.
It is believed that the true potential of usage of 5G networks is yet to be explored but a major advantage of high-speed data transfer is seen when the unmanned flight is made to fly beyond the visual line of sight of the pilot or the BVLOS. A drone pilot must constantly be in touch with the UAV in such a scenario and this is where there is a need of a strong, safe and a reliable connection between the control unit or the pilot and the drone.
5G is the fifth generation of standard for mobile internet that uses a high radio frequency to pack more data for transfer at the same time and at a low latency rate. 5G is better than its predecessors like 3G and 4G in reducing the congestion in the network, promising greater bandwidth and an extended network coverage area. The theoretical speeds of 5G have been nearly a hundredfold more than what 4G delivers, which is why the responsiveness in the network is better and the upload and download of data is fast.
Cellular networks enable the drone pilot to control the drone from basically any corner of the world provided the drone is fit with a cellular connection. They are hence better than the also popularly used Wifi connections that unfortunately restrict drone governance to 3–5 kms only. Good network coverage, achieved by the high-speed cellular networks guarantee a cost-effective drone governance and a high quality connectivity with the drone. Another advantage of using the 5G cellular network for communication with drones is the capacity of the network to support a large number of devices within the same geographical area, approximately over a million in 1 kilometre radius.
Over the years, it has been felt that there is a strong need to come-up with innovative measures to handle the challenges of latency, safety and careful management of the drone traffic along with the manned flights in the air space. The potential benefits from the 5G networks in future would be playing a major role in its widespread usage in drone technology, clubbed with the advancements in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
The upcoming network infrastructure is bound to be a complex one as the fifth generation of mobile telephony and internet would form the core of a plethora of applications in the field of data communication. Though there can never be a hundred percent coverage and bandwidth in any network, 5G has the potential to become a standard for secured communication in near future, provided the 5G infrastructure is well fit in nearly all the drones and possesses less challenges than its other counterparts.
