CBL - Campus del Baix Llobregat

Projecte llegit

Títol: Integration of Drones into Mobile Telecommunication Networks: Evaluating Coverage and Quality Tradeoffs

Estudiants que han llegit aquest projecte:

Director/a: GARCÍA LOZANO, MARIO

Departament: TSC

Títol: Integration of Drones into Mobile Telecommunication Networks: Evaluating Coverage and Quality Tradeoffs

Data inici oferta: 17-07-2023     Data finalització oferta: 17-03-2024


Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
    DG ENG AERO/SIS TEL
Tipus: Individual
 
Lloc de realització: EETAC
 
Paraules clau:
Drones, uas, mobile telecommunications, coverage, aerial users
 
Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
The main objective of this project is to evaluate and analyze the
feasibility of integrating drones
as 'aerial' users in mobile telecommunication networks. The
applications can vary, including
airspace management, remote control of drones, and telemetry data
transmission in non-line-of-sight
conditions.

The project is divided into two main parts. In the first part,
ultra-realistic simulations will be
conducted in Barcelona using ray tracing techniques. The changes
in coverage and quality of service
will be evaluated when utilizing existing networks, which are
primarily designed for ground users.
The focus will be on investigating how 5G networks, based on
beamforming, can be optimized with
vertical beamforming to serve the new aerial terminals and
enhance their performance. Different
antenna configurations will be studied, considering the tradeoff
between drone coverage improvement
and ground service quality.

In the second part of the project, a real 5G base station will be
implemented, and various proof-of-
concept tests will be conducted to validate the findings from the
first part. Open 5G protocol
stacks and software-defined radio devices will be utilized for
these field tests. Additionally, the
operation and installation of this software should conduct to a
feasibility study with real drones.
In this case, the methodology is mostly experimental and requires
hardware activities and potential
programming on the available code (srsRAN, openAirInterface...).
 
Overview (resum en anglès):
The purpose of this project is to conduct a detailed evaluation of the coverage and quality of service of a 5G network in an urban environment at various heights, using raytracing-based simulations. The realistic deployment of 5G technology has been carried out in the city of Barcelona, particularly in the Eixample district. MATLAB will be used to create a model that simulates the network's performance for both ground-level and elevated users, which will serve as a reference for other studies. The simulations will be highly detailed, incorporating propagation calculations that account for reflections and diffractions, and will require code optimization to speed up the process.

The project proposes incorporating beamforming technology to overcome the limitations of current deployments. This advanced technique adjusts and directs the power of signals precisely, providing the three-dimensional coverage necessary to keep both ground and aerial users connected.

The study will develop in two distinct phases. The first phase will use a trisectorization strategy, to use this scenario to provide comparative data for the second phase, which will introduce beamforming technology. This second phase will include simulations using three different antenna geometries.

Defining this first scenario requires careful network planning. This planning will include determining the positions of the base stations to adequately cover the study area. Planning of the radiation diagrams for the different antenna geometries will also be conducted, taking into account the \acs{ssb} (Synchronization Signal Block) and \acs{pdsch} (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) channels.

Key metrics such as received power and \acs{sinr} (Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio) will be measured. Results will show an improvement in performance with beamforming scenarios compared to trisectorization. On the other hand, for the different geometries, very similar results are observed, making it difficult to highlight one over the others, and thus depending on each case analyzed. It highlights the acquisition of good metrics in the case where both types of users coexist, consequently demonstrating the advantages of beamforming.

Finally, the project will culminate with a proof of concept using open-source platforms to implement beamforming through Software Defined Radio (\acs{sdr}) devices and computers with standard specifications, demonstrating the feasibility of this technique and achieving good performance.

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