System Requirements Specification for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to Server Communication

Abstract

Within this paper, requirements for server to Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) communication over the mobile network are evaluated. It is examined, whether a reliable cellular network communication can be accomplished with the use of current Long Term Evolution (LTE) network technologies, or, if the 5th Generation (5G) network is indispensable. Moreover, enhancements on improving the channel quality on the UAV-side are evaluated. Therefore, parameters like data rate, latency, message size and reliability for Command and Control (C&C) and application data are determined. Furthermore, possible improvements regarding interference mitigation in the up- and downlink of the UAV are discussed. For this purpose, results from publications of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and from surveys regarding UAVs and mobile networks are presented. This work shows that, for C&C use cases like steering to waypoints, the latency and the data rate of the LTE network is sufficient, but in terms of reliability problems can occur. Furthermore, the usability of standard protocols for computer networks like the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is discussed. There are also multimodal implementations of these protocols like MultiPath TCP (MPTCP) which can be adapted into the UAV's communication system in order to increase reliability through multiple communication channels. Finally, applications for Long Range (LoRa) direct communication in terms of supporting the cellular network of the UAV are considered.