Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), also commonly known as drones, are piloted by remote control with integrated software and no humans on board. Historically, UAVs were used primarily in military applications. In recent years, enthusiasm for the use of UAVs in civil and commercial applications has skyrocketed, thanks to the advancement of UAV manufacturing technologies costs reduction, making them more easily accessible to the public.

Exponential growth of the global UAV industry is expected in the coming years

Today, UAVs have numerous applications in a broad range of fields, such as aerial inspection, photography, precision agriculture, traffic control, search and rescue, package delivery, and telecommunications, among others. Exponential growth of the global UAV industry is expected in the coming years.

The researcher at the UPF Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC), Giovanni Geraci, recently appointed Distinguished Lecturer  by the IEEE Communications Society and an expert in this area, has co-published the book UAV Communications for 5G and Beyond (Wiley IEEE, December 2020), which contains a comprehensive overview of possible applications, network architectures, research findings, enabling technologies, results of experimental measurements and standardizations of the industry for UAV communications in cellular systems. The book includes both the infrastructure for the existing Long Term Evolution standard (LTE) as well as future 5G and subsequent systems.

The book includes both the infrastructure for the existing Long Term Evolution standard (LTE) as well as future 5G and subsequent systems

The work covers a variety of topics that will be of interest to both students and professionals. It discusses issues of UAV detection and identification as well as the positioning of autonomous aerial vehicles. The editors offer readers the opportunity to improve their ability to plan and design drones with a view to the growth boom in drones envisaged for the immediate future, in parallel with the new 5G and subsequent communication systems. Readers will learn about a wide variety of timely, practical matters topics on UAVs, such as: 

• Measuring performance for air vehicles via cellular networks, particularly with respect to existing LTE performance.
• Coordination of intercellular interference with drones
• Multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) for UAV mobile communications, including beamforming, interference suppression and the performance of direct link C&C (Command and Control) channels.
• 3GPP standardization for UAVs with cellular support, including UAV traffic requirements, channel modelling and interference challenges
• Optimizing UAV communications paths

UAV Communications for 5G and Beyond is a benchmark work for professional engineers and researchers working professionals in the field of UAVs, and is also suitable for master’s degree and doctoral students researching on the integration of UAVs in cellular communication systems.

Related book:

Yong Zeng (Editor), Ismail Güvenç (Editor), Rui Zhang (Editor), Giovanni Geraci (Editor), David W. Matolak (Editor) (2020), UAV Communications for 5G and Beyond, ISBN: 978-1-119-57569-6,Wiley-IEEE Press, pages. 464.