Enhanced Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Communication Support in LTE-Advanced

The Long-Term Evolution (LTE) support for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) is among vertical services which have been recently addressed in 3GPP standardization activities. Meticulous channel modelling and verification of the legacy network performance when new aerial users are introduced have preceded the actual solution defining phase. This paper briefly describes what challenges have been identified in the study and depicts how those have been tackled. We outline the solutions for enhanced mobility and interference management. In addition, we present simulation results showing how those recently defined LTE mechanisms perform. Finally, we elaborate on what gaps are still to be bridged for optimal performance of UAVs connected to LTE networks.