What changes does the 5G network bring to the drone industry? How high can the 5G fly the drone?

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5G+ drones, how can the drone fly so high?
Guide: What changes does the 5G network bring to the drone industry? How high can the 5G fly
the drone?
As a new type of technology product, drones are used more and more in our lives. From the
beginning of the entertainment flight show to aerial photography, logistics, inspection, and other
fields, we can see the drone. Today, the drone industry is growing rapidly, making it increasingly
demanding mobile communication networks. For this reason, many people predict that drones
will be one of the first major industries for 5G networks.
Nowadays, 5G commercial licenses have been officially issued, and the real commercial use of 5G
networks has also been put on the agenda. However, why do drones need 5G networks? What
changes does the 5G network bring to the drone industry? How high can 5G fly the drones?
The drone market enters a transition period, and industrial-grade drones are favored by capital.
The UAV market can generally be divided into consumer-grade UAVs and industry-class UAVs. At
present, consumer-grade UAVs have been monopolized by Dajiang, and the industry-level UAV
market has not yet formed a real monopoly. Consumer-grade drones have no signs of returning
to life since entering the capital winter in 2016. Industry-class drones are more favored by capital.
At present, industrial-grade UAVs can be applied to many industries, such as logistics, inspection,
security and other vertical industries. iResearch predicts that by 2025, the domestic drone
market will reach a total of 75 billion. Among them, the industry applies about 20 billion
agricultural and forestry plant protection, the security market is about 15 billion, the power
inspection is about 5 billion, and the consumer market for aerial entertainment is 30 billion.
Everyone is optimistic about the prospects of industrial-grade UAVs, but UAVs still have problems
such as weak legal supervision, inadequate research and application, security problems and

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difficult breakthroughs in technology. However, the network problem is the key link that restricts
its development. The 4G network has room for improvement in terms of bandwidth, delay, and
interference coordination. First of all, in terms of signal interference, the base station of the flight
path of the drone mainly relies on ground cover construction, and the flight height of the drone is
not in the range of the main lobe of the ground station antenna. Therefore, the air signal is poor
and there is no primary coverage cell. In the end, the downlink interference of the base station is
large, and some areas even have the problem of short-line loss.
Secondly, in terms of time delay, if the drone is in an area where the interference is too large, the
management command in the downstream direction is difficult to transmit. According to the "5G
UAV Application White Paper" issued by the Institute of Information and Communication, it is
known that some interfering neighboring areas come from long-distance base stations and the
station spacing is 500m. The urban scene will receive 2.5 external cell interference, frequent air
switching, handover failure and number of dropped calls. The ground is 2-5 times higher. For
networked drones, if the delay is unstable, the signal will not be received in time, and even the
work of the drone will be affected.
As of December 31, 2017, the production of domestic civil drones in China reached 2.9 million in
2017, a year-on-year increase of 67%. Today, scenarios, where drones fail to be implemented
under 4G networks, can be developed in 5G networks. The combination of 5G cellular mobile
communication technology and drones will allow drones to break through current limitations and
build a more stable UAV network control system.
The 5G network empowers drones to build a world of heaven, earth, and air
The 5G network has a new network architecture that enables ultra-high bandwidth, millisecond
latency, and ultra-high-density links. These advantages can largely alleviate the current dilemma
of drones. When the 5G network can realize real commercial use, the drone will form a 7*24
full-time UAV network, which will constitute a world of real-time linkage between heaven, earth,
and air.
In terms of reducing signal interference, 5G can be used to lay out large-scale antennas with
narrow beam alignment for service users, and then inter-cell or inter-cell interference.
Coordinated transmission can also be used to coordinate time, frequency, space, code, and power.
Resource coordination; more frequency-division access to different bandwidths, so that the
ground and space use different networks to reduce interference.
In terms of UAV downlink capacity, today's low-altitude drones may not have high requirements
for downstream capacity. Once the number of drones increases and the ground terminal service
load is too large, there will be a problem of limited downlink capacity. For the downlink capacity
problem, the large-scale antenna capability of the 5G base station can increase the number of
horizontal and vertical transmission channels, so that the horizontal-vertical beam is more
accurately pointed to the target user. In this way, a narrower beam can help control interference,
improve the user's signal-to-noise ratio, and achieve more users' space division multiplexing to
improve downlink capacity.
Finally, in terms of time delay, the control and command of the drone require low latency, and
the return of HD video needs to reduce the delay. The new air interface of 5G can be scheduled
according to different service delay requirements, and the low-latency transmission is

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implemented by adopting pre-pilot, mini-slot, flexible frame structure, and uplink schedule-free
design. For data services, self-contained sub-frame structures, transmissions, and feedback can
be used in a one-time slot, which can greatly reduce time.
The characteristics of the 5G network in terms of delay, anti-interference, and downlink capacity
can alleviate the paralysis of UAVs in the 4G network era, and 5G networks can meet the
communication needs of drones in most application scenarios. Bringing nearly 10 times business
opportunities to the industry. With a stable network, we will better utilize the advantages of fast
response, good viewing angle and wide coverage of the drone, so as to provide better services for
various industries, and thus achieve efficiency and energy reduction.
5G unlocks more new scenes for drones
The 5G network allows the drone to do better and more stable in existing scenarios, and the
networked drone will drive more types of application scenarios. The combination of 5G and
drones includes not only network access, but also edge computing technology and network
slicing capabilities. This perfect cooperation makes the drones have better upgrades in VR live
broadcast, urban park security, HD live broadcast, power inspection, base station inspection,
drone logistics, drone water, and field scientific survey.
In terms of VR live broadcast and HD live broadcast, the 5G network can achieve an uplink
single-user experience rate of 100Mdps or more and an air interface delay of 10ms, so VR live
broadcast and HD video live broadcast will be more smooth. Taking VR live broadcast as an
example, the drone is video-captured by a 360-degree panoramic camera mounted on the
drone's body. The panoramic camera can transmit 4K panoramic video to the streaming server
through the uplink through the CPE connected to the 5G network. In the user, the user then
watches the PC through the VR eye, and the whole process requires extremely high speed and
quality of the network transmission.
When the stability of video transmission is guaranteed, drones will be used in more vertical
industries. Nowadays, the more mature security industry for drones requires UAVs to realize
real-time transmission of high-definition video, flight status monitoring, remote control and
network positioning, which has improved video resolution requirements. The large bandwidth
and low latency of the 5G network can stream HD video back to the control center in real time,
enabling it to quickly analyze video.
In addition to helping the video to be transmitted in real time, 5G also ensures that drones can be
used in harsh environments such as drone application communications and rescue and field
science observations. China has a vast territory and diverse environment. When disasters occur
or geo-surveys occur, manpower always has force majeure factors. At this time, the role of drones
is more obvious. The edge computing technology brought by 5G technology can help drones to
screen unwanted or redundant information locally and improve system efficiency.
In general, the application of 5G in the field of drones promotes the full-time and intelligent
construction of drones in logistics, agriculture, inspection, security, and other scenarios. Today,
civil UAV applications have broad prospects and are one of the key industries for 5G technology
and business applications. Nowadays, cross-border integration between 5G and drones will
accelerate the widespread use of civilian drones, and there will be new increments in this market.