eVTOL Communications and Networking in UAM: Requirements, Key Enablers, and Challenges

TL;DR

This paper discusses the communication and networking needs of eVTOL aircraft in urban air mobility, highlighting requirements, enabling technologies, and comparing terrestrial and aerial infrastructure solutions for safe operation.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of eVTOL communication requirements, identifies key enabling technologies, and compares terrestrial and aerial communication infrastructures for UAM.

Findings

eVTOLs require high coverage, data rate, and low latency communications.

Key enablers include advanced spectrum management and reliable aerial networks.

Aerial communication infrastructure offers advantages over terrestrial systems for eVTOLs.

Abstract

Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft have attracted great attention during the last years as the long-awaited enabler of urban air mobility (UAM), allowing a more sustainable method of transportation and accelerating the development of smart cities. The operation of eVTOLs over urban areas introduces safety hazards for passengers, pedestrians, and buildings, which prioritises safety considerations. Ensuring the safe operation of eVTOLs requires studying their communication, networking, computing requirements. In this paper, we showcase eVTOL requirements in UAM in terms of coverage, data rate, latency, spectrum efficiency, networking, and computing. Then, we identify potential key technological enablers to address these requirements and their challenges. Finally, we carry out a comparative case study between the terrestrial and aerial communication infrastructures to serve eVTOLs in UAM.