Deutsche Telekom has announced that it is providing a 5G campus network for the “Drone4Parcel5G” research project taking place in the South Westphalia region, which aims to carry out tests in connection with 5G autonomous flights for parcel deliveries.
The technology is designed to reduce road traffic and minimise delivery times. For this purpose, Deutsche Telekom has equipped a test site in Rüthen with a special mobile 5G communications container, which will cover the area with the latest mobile communications standards throughout the project.
This will allow researchers to carry out tests around drone flights, combined with 5G technology and under real-life conditions. The drones, the company says, are able to reliably transmit sensor, image and flight data via 5G. This temporary local area network is the first case in which Deutsche Telekom is implementing the new product “Campus Network Temporary”, which is aimed at business customers.
Today, according to the company, drones have to be controlled by a pilot, with visual contact. In the future, an autonomous drone delivery service via 5G could allow multiple drones to be coordinated and monitored, simultaneously and in real time, via a central control station, without the need for visual contact. In these use cases, drones will transport goods, autonomously, between two points, via optimised routes, reacting to obstacles to avoid collisions.
A fleet of drones operated in this way massively increases the range and efficiency of drone flights. At the same time, the autonomous operation of drones imposes particularly high requirements in terms of security and stability of data transmission. The project in South Westphalia is investigating both 5G communication between drone and base station and drone-to-drone communication.
The project, led by the University of Applied Sciences South Westphalia and other partners from the region, will run until the end of 2023 and will lead to the development of a system for planning and controlling the movement of such drones. The State of North Rhine-Westphalia has provided €1.6 million in funding. euros under the “5G” programme.
During the course of this, drone delivery will be tested for use cases by pharmacies, but also in the industrial sector – for example, for the delivery of tools and metal products or the delivery of medicines in rural areas.
ο Campus Network Temporary που χρησιμοποιείται για πρώτη φορά σε αυτό το project, καθιστά δυνατή την κάλυψη μιας καθορισμένης περιοχής με πρόσθετη συνδεσιμότητα 5G, ευέλικτα και για σύντομο χρονικό διάστημα, μέσω του δημόσιου δικτύου της Telekom. It combines the strengths of the public network with the exclusivity of a virtual private network.
