ITU-R REPORT M.2171 [ Active ]

Introduction and scope

A significant increase in the application of UAS is anticipated over the next decade and beyond. Seamless flight of unmanned aircraft (UA) within conventional air traffic is becoming vital for the further development of UA missions and markets.

The key issue for UAS proponents is to reassure aviation authorities that UA flight within civilian air traffic will:

– integrate seamlessly into current air traffic control (ATC) procedures;

– maintain safety-of-flight levels.

This will influence the corresponding spectrum requirements and the quality of spectrum needed to satisfy these requirements.

Communications are key in UAS systems due to the remote nature of human presence. Safety-of-flight is the driving factor when the seamless flight of UAS within civilian air traffic is at stake. In the end, safe operation of UAS relies on communications which represents a critical step in enabling UAS operations in non-segregated airspaces. The different types of communications addressed in this report are explained below.

All the information given in this paper is only used to determine the spectrum requirements provided in § 5 and is not relevant for operational purposes.

This report is based on two independently developed methodologies in the relevant annexes. These methodologies, even though based on different approaches, provide comparable estimated spectrum requirements.

The report is structured as follows:

Main part

Annex 1 – Throughput requirements for control and non-payload communications of a single unmanned aircraft.

Annex 2 – UAS deployment scenario.

Annex 3 – Aggregate bandwidth requirements for command and control, for support of sense and avoid and ATC relay of unmanned aircraft.

Annex 4 – Airspace classes, services and flight requirements.

Annex 5 – Acronyms.