Researchers from two universities, Aalto University and Tampere University of Technology, in Finland have addressed new possibilities for efficient detection of drones by relying on future 5G communication systems. There, mmWave base stations may act as multistatic radar system receivers, thus acquiring the reflected signal from nearby flying drones.
"To prevent dangerous situations, it is crucial to detect a violating drone as early as possible. For that purpose, integration of multistatic radar techniques with extremely high-frequency 5G infrastructure has been proposed, which partly employs radio resources for early drone detection," the researchers say.
The contributors have therefore developed novel techniques for efficient drone detection in urban environments, where 5G networks are expected to deploy soon. Given that 5G deployments are expected to operate at mmWave frequencies, the feasibility of drone detection improves due to shorter wavelengths, which are comparable with the size of a drone, as well as due to a larger available bandwidth of the mmWave system.
Governments can accordingly benefit by preventing recreational drones from unauthorized flights over restricted areas, which ultimately increases public safety in cities. Drone detection is still itself an emerging industry, it will be exciting to see how it changes with new technology.