The 5G!Drones project demonstrated project progress in an impressive event at Egaleo stadium, in Athens on Thursday 8 September 2022. More specifically, during the event the 5G!Drones use case #4 (UC4: Connectivity during crowded events) was demonstrated.
As per the use case scenario, during crowded events, such as football games, public demonstrations, and political protests, cellular networks face an extremely high demand for communication capacity during the event. This results in deteriorated network service with dropped calls and degraded Internet connectivity. Although telecommunication companies have deployed temporary solutions, such as portable base stations called Cells on Wheels (COWs) for increasing communication capacity and free Wi-Fi access points for offloading Internet traffic from cellular base stations, crowded events remain a major challenge for cellular network operators.
Using an on-demand swarm of UAVs equipped with 5G small cells can solve this challenge by providing better coverage resulting in fewer dropped calls and better Internet connectivity to people attending the events. Since in this use case drones are flying over a crowded area, reliable control of drones (i.e., flying capabilities and residual battery life) is needed.