Wireless Technologies to Connect Drones Under Beyond-Line-of-Sight Conditions: From Multi-Hop to High Altitude Platform

Abstract

The age of drones flying above urban, mountain, and island areas for applications such as transportation, aerial photography, inspection, agriculture, and disaster mitigation is fast approaching. Wireless technology plays a significant role in operating drones safely, in addition to improved drone technology and unmanned aircraft traffic management (UTM) systems. In this article, we present the techniques of beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) command and telemetry communications and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, which have been developed by NICT. Furthermore, we give a brief introduction to the R & D of a wide-area communication system for drones via a relay using a high-altitude platform station (HAPS), which has been started as one of the technologies to provide “supercoverage” in the coming 6G Era.