Wireless communication for safe UAVs: From Long-Range Deconfliction to short-range collision avoidance

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development of wireless communication strategies for safe UAV operation, including traffic management, separation distances, and a Wi-Fi-based messaging scheme for collision avoidance.

Contribution

It introduces a unified terminology for drone traffic management and evaluates a novel Wi-Fi-based messaging scheme for enhancing UAV safety.

Findings

Wi-Fi-based messaging scheme shows promise for drone traffic management

Analysis of separation distances improves safety protocols

Proposed architecture supports scalable UAV traffic control

Abstract

Small drones are becoming a part of our everyday life. They are used in a wide variety of commercial applications, and the number of drones in the air is steadily growing. To ensure the safe operation of drones, traffic management rules must be designed and implemented by avionics and telecommunication experts. In this article, we propose to establish a common terminology for these two communities. We first describe the traffic management architecture and services. Next, we overview several approaches for defining the inter-drone separation distances ensuring the safe operation. Moreover, we analyze which existing technologies can be useful for each of these definitions. Finally, we present measurement results indicating that our new Wi-Fi-based messaging scheme is a potentially useful tool for the drone traffic management system.