Ericsson and China Mobile trial 5G drone prototype

Ericsson and Nokia are both trialing using drones to dynamically improve coverage of next-generation mobile networks.

Ericsson and China Mobile recently announced they have completed a 5G drone prototype field trial on the operator’s network.

During the trial in Wuxi, a drone was flown using the operator’s mobile network with 5G-enabled technologies and handovers across multiple sites.

In a statement, the companies said the trial marks “an important step toward 5G networks in which part of a network can be distributed and dynamically deployed at the cellular edge in order to reduce end-to-end latency, and to serve a range of 5G use cases at the same time.”

Nokia has meanwhile been collaborating with EE to trial using drones to carry tine base stations to remote areas. Nokia said the testing showed that drones can help to very quickly establish mobile coverage over ranges of several kilometers.

Mobile operators would be able to provide temporary 4G coverage in remote areas or rapidly extend capacity at large events such as sports matches or festivals.

During the trial high-quality LTE calls, video streaming and a peak data throughput of 150Mbps were all achieved without the need to connect to an external core network.

The development follows shortly after Nokia and SK Telecom announced that they had completed trials of an all-in-one portable public safety LTE system, which contains all the equipment needed to establish a temporary LTE network in hardware compact enough to fit in a backpack.