Group Handover for Drone-Mounted Base Stations

The widespread use of new technologies such as the Internet of things (IoT) and machine type communication(MTC) forces an increase on the number of user equipments(UEs) and MTC devices that are connecting to mobile networks. Inherently, as the number of UEs inside a base station's (BS) coverage area surges, the quality of service (QoS) tends to decline. The use of drone-mounted BS (UxNB) is a solution in places where UEs are densely populated, such as stadiums. UxNB emerges as a promising technology that can be used for capacity injection purposes in the future due to its fast deployment. However, this emerging technology introduces a new security issue. Mutual authentication, creating a communication channel between terrestrial BS and UxNB, and fast handover operations may cause security issues in the use of UxNB for capacity injection. This new protocol also suggests performing UE handover from terrestrial to UxNB as a group. To the best of the authors' knowledge, there is no authentication solution between BSs according to LTE and 5G standards. The proposed scheme provides a solution for the authentication of UxNB by the terrestrial BS. Additionally, a credential sharing phase for each UE in handover is not required in the proposed method. The absence of a credential sharing step saves resources by reducing the number of communications between BSs. Moreover, many UE handover operations are completed in concise time within the proposed group handover method

A Secure Real-time Multimedia Streaming through Robust and Lightweight AES Encryption in UAV Networks for Operational Scenarios in Military Domain

multimodal data encryption and decryption for security applications in protected environments like espionage, situational awareness, monitoring, and counter-UAV. Data is captured from drones equipped with microphone arrays and cameras. This is performed by exploiting acoustic event analysis, video tracking, and recognition, performed on a ground station. All the communications are delivered in a secure data channel. Integrity and secrecy of the sensitive data acquired by drones must be guaranteed until the data is delivered in real-time from UAVs to the destination node. A possible data exploit may cause critical problems if the data is intercepted by malicious attackers. Being the drones equipped with low energy consuming devices with low computational power, like single-board-computers, a real-time lightweight application-level AES encryption, in addition to the MAC encryption of the wireless communication channel, has been considered. In the experiment, the encryption and decryption process has been optimized, even under adverse transmission conditions ensuring continuous data encryption even if some packets are lost or the connection is repeatedly dropped and reestablished

A Survey on Cellular-connected UAVs: Design Challenges, Enabling 5G/B5G Innovations, and Experimental Advancements

As an emerging field of aerial robotics, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have gained significant research interest within the wireless networking research community. As soon as national legislations allow UAVs to fly autonomously, we will see swarms of UAV populating the sky of our smart cities to accomplish different missions: parcel delivery, infrastructure monitoring, event filming, surveillance, tracking, etc. The UAV ecosystem can benefit from existing 5G/B5G cellular networks, which can be exploited in different ways to enhance UAV communications. Because of the inherent characteristics of UAV pertaining to flexible mobility in 3D space, autonomous operation and intelligent placement, these smart devices cater to wide range of wireless applications and use cases. This work aims at presenting an in-depth exploration of integration synergies between 5G/B5G cellular systems and UAV technology, where the UAV is integrated as a new aerial User Equipment (UE) to existing cellular networks. In this integration, the UAVs perform the role of flying users within cellular coverage, thus they are termed as cellular-connected UAVs (a.k.a. UAV-UE, drone-UE, 5G-connected drone, or aerial user). The main focus of this work is to present an extensive study of integration challenges along with key 5G/B5G technological innovations and ongoing efforts in design prototyping and field trials corroborating cellular-connected UAVs. This study highlights recent progress updates with respect to 3GPP standardization and emphasizes socio-economic concerns that must be accounted before successful adoption of this promising technology. Various open problems paving the path to future research opportunities are also discussed.Comment: 30 pages, 18 figures, 9 tables, 102 references, journal submissio

Development of a Drone-Mounted Wireless Attack Platform

The commercial drone market has grown rapidly due to the increasing utility and capabilities of drones. This new found popularity has made it possible for inexpensive drones capable of impressive carry capacities and flight times to reach the consumer market. These new features also offer an invaluable resource to wireless hackers. Capitalizing on their mobility, a wireless hacker can equip a drone with hacking tools to surpass physical security (e.g. fences) with relative ease and reach wireless networks. This research seeks to experimentally evaluate the ability of a drone-mounted wireless attack platform equipped with a directional antenna to conduct wireless attacks effectively at distances greater than 800 meters. To test this hypothesis, the “skypie v2” prototype conducts computer network attacks against a target network and captured data is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the platform. Results showed that capture of a WPA2 handshake was possible at a RSSI of -72 dBm or 2400 meters from a network located in a open field. Additionally, nmap scans were conducted with a RSSI value of -74 dBm or nearly 3000 meters from the target network

Open source software radio platform for research on cellular networked UAVs: It works!

Cellular network-connected unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) experience different radio propagation conditions than radio nodes on the ground. Therefore, it has become critical to investigate the performance of aerial radios, both theoretically and through field trials. In this article, we consider low-altitude aerial nodes that are served by an experimental cellular network. We provide a detailed description of the hardware and software components needed to establish a broadband wireless testbed for UAV communications research using software radios. Results show that a testbed for innovation in UAV communications and networking is feasible with commercial off-the-shelf hardware, open source software, and low-power signaling.This work was in part supported by NSF award CNS-1939334.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

USAGE OF 5G IN UAV MISSIONS FOR ISR

Traditionally, UAVs operate on a one-to-one transmission mode where the UAVs have one data link between one ground command and control station. Therefore, the radius at which the UAV can travel is limited. The bandwidth of the traditional link is limited to less than 8Mbps and the quality of the video is below 1080p. 4G technology has been applied to the UAV data link to solve some of these more traditional problems. However, the 4G data link also comes with its own limitations such as downlink interference and can only be useful in scenarios with a high delay tolerance. 5G technology solves the spatial coverage problem by increasing the number of antenna modules and fusing the antenna module and radio hardware. The result is a three-dimensional beam. The UAV itself can be used as a base station for the 5G network, so that all ground stations can be connected as the UAV continues its flight path. UAVs can also be used as aerial nodes in a larger swarm network to offer coverage over larger areas. Additionally, the use of the OpenStack architecture can allow the Navy to customize protocols as desired. The proposed research includes investigating how current UAV to ship/shore communications are conducted. The objective of this thesis is to determine if 5G communications are possible between UAV and ship/shore assets, to successfully connect a UAV to the 4G and possibly 5G network and to determine if UAVs can send data between each other to the ground station.Lieutenant Commander, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited