IIT KGP researchers develop UAV-assisted communication infrastructure for 5G

    Kolkata, Jan 7 (PTI) Researchers from G S Sanyal
School of Telecommunication at IIT Kharagpur have developed a
UAV-assisted communication infrastructure for 5G that can
serve as an airborne mobile telecom tower during emergencies.
    The system includes an android-based application
fitted to a fleet of drones which are programmed to create
emergency communication networks from the closest available
mobile towers, an IIT Kharagpur statement said on Thursday.
    "Through intelligent programming, we can deploy our
5G-connected drone fleet in a particular location as soon as
the first emergency signal is flagged.
    "The data in the telecommunication backbone network is
relayed to the rescue server, located thousands of miles away,
within the first three minutes of the occurrence of a
disaster," Prof Debarati Sen, who led the research team, said.
    The disaster-hit network connection is restored
through the nearest mobile tower.
    In the case of network disruptions, the drones can
intelligently avoid it by changing their location.
    For people travelling to an affected region and devoid
of any cellular network, they can be auto-connected to such
nearby drone service as they search for the mobile network.
    "We have already studied the performance of the UAV
network with the app 'NerQuake in situations of emergency
response in disaster management and maintenance of the quality
of service by deploying a fleet of four unmanned aerial
vehicles.
    "We have used network coverage data of various mobile
service providers in the northeastern states in verifying the
functionality of the app," Sen said.
    The team of researchers has submitted the phase-I
report to the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information
Technology which is funding the project.
    The researchers are open to the commercialisation of
this intelligent UAV system.
    "The prospects of this system are wide-ranging. Apart
from a disaster situation, these smart drones can be used for
crowd management. In agriculture, these UAVs can be used for
crop health monitoring," the researchers said. PTI SUS SBN
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)