Xu, Zhengjia (Cranfield), Petrunin, Ivan (Cranfield University), Tsourdos, Antonios (Cranfield University), Mondal, Sabyasachi (Cranfield), Williamson, Alex (Cranfield University)

Aeronautical Cognitive Communication System Design for Unmanned Aircraft System

Scheduled for presentation during the Regular Session "Networked Swarms" (TuD26T2), Tuesday, November 26, 2019, 15:40−16:00, Room T2

2019 Workshop on Research, Education and Development of Unmanned Aerial Systems (RED UAS), November 25-27, 2019, Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on July 5, 2025

Abstract

An intelligent and agile wireless communication scheme is a key factor in provision of efficient air-to-ground (A2G) communication for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operations. For this purpose we review and propose an architecture for aeronautical cognitive communication system (ACCS) that will be providing command, control and communication (C3) link between ground control stations (GCSs) and multiple UAVs utilizing cognitive radio (CR) concept. The factors reviewed and accounted for in the design process are the topology of cognitive detectors, connectivity between cognitive detector and control agency, connection with unmanned traffic management (UTM) system, data link requirements imposed by cognitive scheme, failure notification and recovery, etc. The proposed ACCS is suitable for supporting UAV operations and features a distributed non-communication architecture consisting of GCS network in the ground zone, hybrid data link with the static uplink and the flexible downlink, demonstrating a dynamic nature overall with the frequency handoff scheme generated periodically in accordance with current spectrum environment.