C-Band Air to Ground Communication System for UAV

Abstract

C band spectrum 5030-5091 MHz is allocated for command-and-control commu- nication services with unmanned aircraft systems. This document evaluates the possibility of using 3GPP 5G standards for provisioning of such services. Chan- nelization of the spectrum and major system parameters are proposed. The performance of the proposed system in channel fading environment is evaluated using MATLAB based simulations. The evaluations examine SINR, and aver- age throughput of the proposed system at different altitudes of the unmanned aircraft system. MATLAB simulations are used to evaluate system performance in free-space environments. Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (SINR) and Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) are predicted at different UAS heights. The performance of the system is accessed for different types of antenna arrays on the aircraft. Cases ranging from a single antenna to a 10 by 10 array are con- sidered. The study uses a 20 MHz channel and considers a system load of 50 percent.