INCREASING UAV RANGE BEYOND LINE OF SIGHT USING THE GSM

BAND.
INTRODUCTION.
The use of UAVs for various applications is rapidly increasing and the complexity of these
applications has also introduced various challenges, environmental and technical alike.
Circumspect to the communication systems part of UAVs, control range, trajectory
optimization, energy efficient use of communication links and eavesdropper problem are such
issues for which wide research is being made all over the world on how to counteract or even
improve these areas for better utilization of UAV capability.
Multiple applications in the UAV field including, coast guard missions, wildlife monitoring,
disaster management and even military use are best suited for a degree of control beyond line
of sight and the issue of limited range greatly affects this as well as strength of communication
links that usually lead to crash landing when they are weak. This creates a huge void in coming
up with models and architecture that can keep strong links to the UAV beyond line of sight
while at the same time minimizing negative effects on existing infrastructure.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND RELATED WORK.

The number of publications and open literature regarding systems for transmitting and
receiving data from the UAV using features of cellular networks is very limited however a few of
them have been put out there as highlighted below.
In 2015, a Korean team published a proposed system of connecting a remote-control
transmitter to a laptop and the GSM network used for real time UAV control using a novel
advanced software for the ground control station to enable NLoS control. In the development
of this GUI for the targeted GCS, they used open-source existing frameworks namely, Visual
studio.NET that included (VB.NET and C#) and python and this was used due to its various
capabilities like hardware interfacing, in – memory database, threading, APIs, stopwatches,
data storage and COM technology.
For the drone structure hardware, they used a bunch of commercial off the shelf components
(COTS) such as COTS AHRS integrated with GPS on the same board, three axis MEMS gyroscope,
three-axis accelerometer, compass and pressure sensors, they also used COTS avionics (PWM
controller) that provided 32 simultaneous control channels.
Having brought these together, they had an intended communications scheme which involved a
ground system (RC transmitter and portable laptop equipped with the developed software) plus
a GSM modem to communicate with the airborne system through the 3G network after which
the airborne system passes the feedback to the cellular network to be delivered to the GCS
downlink and data manipulation takes place.

Figure 1 Illustration of the proposed communication scheme

This system was able to achieve a baud rate of 9600bps and a network latency of 286ms after
simulations. They also achieved all their objectives including NLoS control of the UAV via GSM
network. [1]

Another Korean team managed to create a system of controlling the UAV and obtaining
telemetry data remotely using the 3G network in 2015. In particular, they built an onboard
embedded computing platform, establishing a measurement and control link based on mobile
communication networks. The model utilized network time delay prediction via a neural
network and finally realized the remote measurement and control of the UAV. [2]

Around the same time, the same Korean intellects in [1] developed a UAV teleoperation virtual
environment based on GSM networks and real weather effects. Their environment aimed for
long range UAV control via NLoS communications based on motion platforms. The idea behind
was to generate motion cues for the teleoperator for extra sensory stimulation to enhance the
guidance performance while employing the distributed component simulation over GSM
network as a platform. They also simulated a Multiple Axis Rotating Device (MARD) as human
machine interface to provide a complete delay analysis, this was mostly to increase
teleoperator’s situational awareness to minimize UAVs accidents so the entire system was
mostly suited to military applications and some civilian applications.
In this communication scheme, there were two workstations involved, one representing the
UAV and the other, the teleoperation station for control. First workstation even involved
MATLAB for capturing GCS commands from the GSM modem, execute them and return
feedback results. So, the teleoperator could control the aircraft and recognize its dynamics via
on screen gauges and the MARD model, through this virtual environment. [3]

Figure 2 Communication scheme for the MARD system

In 2017, a group of Greek scholars proposed an Arduino based subsystem for controlling UAVs
through GSM/GPRS. They used an Arduino platform to convert the GSM/GPRS data to
appropriate UAV communications protocols forwarding it to the UAV autopilot and the main
intention was to implement light weight and low-cost control subsystem, mission oriented e.g.,
waypoints insertion, return to base command etc.
In this architecture, a phone or laptop can act as GCS and the interface between GCS and
autopilot has three stages including, Arduino GSM shield, Arduino mega controller
(microprocessor) and voltage. All types of commands are sent from the GCS through GSM
shield (modem) to the microprocessor which extracts data from GSM, processes it and forwards
it to the voltage converter then finally to the UAV autopilot which executes the commands.

Figure 3 Illustration of the communication scheme.

They achieved an initialization of Arduino platform of 14 seconds, 8 seconds for GSM shield to
connect to internet and 6 seconds for Arduino mega to execute code. In addition, it had a
response time dependent on the GSM network delay (2 seconds on average) and processing
delay of 0.6 seconds on average. [4]

In 2018, a team proposed an Aerial Control System for spectrum efficiency in UAV – to – cellular
communications in regards to 5G expectation and preparation. Having realized 5G connectivity
to the IOT and the experimental use of UAVs as both base station and internet relays among
other services, they studied the impact of UAV communications on existing throughput and
found that their use could crowd and degrade the network spectrum thus affect throughput.
So, they proposed a novel scheme of separating the data plane from the control plane so that
the latter could be performed in air by the UAVs themselves so as to leave the rest of the 5G
spectrum with more bandwidth and spectrum reuse. The scheme takes advantage of the
autonomous nature of the UAVs to organize in one or several clusters. (FANETS or ad – HOCs).
In this scheme, the GCS selects a CH (Cluster Head) within the formed UAV cluster based on
various factors such as energy budget, onboard equipment etc. and the management controls
are passed through this CH instead of the former U2I model, and then the CH passes them
along to the other cluster UAVs thus availing more 5G spectrum for other data transmission.
Figure 4 Illustrating the cluster head that is to command others

It was a great initiative that was even able to attain latency of about 50ms via simulations. [5]

Finally in a related paper published in 2020, a Chinese group came up with a model to increase
UAV communication systems coverage without necessarily using GSM band but a new concept
still under research called a Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) or meta surfaces. In their
scheme, the RF signal generator sends an unmodulated carrier signal to the RIS, then the RIS
modulates each signal and they are used as the transmitter, typically because RIS surfaces are
able to modify signal properties. The UAV is applied as a relay to forward the information to the
destination. This model was able to lower the average bit error rate as well as increase
coverage and improve reliability. [6]

Generally, all these schemes, except [5], make use of GSM or GPRS due to their wide
deployment world wide thus making sense in terms of long-range control.
CONCLUSIONS.
Having analyzed the above literature, we found that schemes in [1], [2] and [3] each focus on
either retrieving telemetry data from the UAV strictly or real time control of the UAV. However,
the scheme in [4] achieved a combination of both with the possibility of mission planning and
changes as well as command control and telemetry retrieval made possible. For the scheme in
[5], the method is quite effective but given that 5G infrastructure isn’t widely deployed makes it
a bit non feasible. [6] is not so much related to deployment of a UAV via cellular system but is
there to illustrate the latest work on a similar subject and that also techniques used thereof
could be utilized to solve the issue at hand.
Existing work hardly accounts for:

• UAV operation on this network during unexpected outage.

• The existing research also only focuses on the use of a singular wireless standard via
cellular system.
• The schemes also do not guarantee communication link safety.
In line with the stated title, we think it is possible to exploit other wireless broadband
techniques such as WIMAX to increase UAV control range and the option seems cheaper.

REFERENCES.

Works Cited

[1] P. Z. a. B. A. A. AbdElHamid, "Advanced Software Ground and UAV Development for NLOS Control
Using Mobile Communications," Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society, vol., pp. 1-20, 2015.

[2] D. J. a. L. S. L. Zhu, "Research of remote measurement and control technology of UAV based
communication networks," Information and Automation, IEEE International Conference on, Lijiang,
pp. 2517-2522, 2015.

[3] A. a. P. Zong, "Development of UAV Teleoperation Virtual Environment Based On GSM Networks
and Real Weather Effects," International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences, vol. 16, no. 3,
pp. 463-474, September 2015.

[4] G. N. S. e. al., "An arduino - based subsytem for controlling UAVs through GSM," 2017 6th
International Conference on Modern Circuits and Systems Technologies (MOCAST), Thessaloniki,
Greece, 2017.
[5] O. B. M. B. a. T. T. H. Hellaoui, "Aerial Control System for Spectrum Efficiency in UAV-to-Cellular
Communications,," in IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 56, no. 10, pp. 108-113, October 2018.

[6] F. M. J. Z. M. H. M. R. Liang Yang, "On the perfomance of RIS Assisted Dual-Hop UAV
Communication Systems.," IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers, 2020.