Author: Alan Weissberger
Facebook & AT&T to Test Drones for Wireless Communications Capabilities
1. Facebook to Test Drones over Menlo Park, CA Campus:
Facebook recently filed documents with the FCC to request the right to operate a drone over its Menlo Park, CA campus using an experimental radio in the 2.4 GHz band. The company plans to fly at least one small, wireless-beaming drone at an altitude of 400 feet around its headquarters in the coming months. The smaller drone is simply being used to test the wireless technology, which Facebook thinks could be used with its larger Aquila drones which are for wireless broadband Internet access in developing countries.
“The purpose of this operation is to test potential new communications applications and equipment in a controlled, low-altitude airborne environment,” one filing says. Another filings specifies the drone will fly at an altitude of 400 feet. The filings, which Facebook made under its FCL Tech drone subsidiary, says it wants to conduct the tests between October and April. Mike Johnson, Facebook’s Deputy General Counsel, is listed as the point of contact on the filing.
More information at: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-to-test-wireless-equipment-on-small-drone-2016-10
and http://fortune.com/2016/10/12/facebook-drone-fcc-headquarters/
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook Inc., views a drone flying.
Photo credit: Michael Short—Bloomberg via Getty Images
2. Telecom Council’s 2016 TC3 Summit featured a case study with AT&T and Qualcomm on Cellular Drone Communication with 4G LTE:
Abstract: Wide-scale deployments of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), or drones, are expected to reshape countless industries, including agriculture, delivery, insurance, public safety, and real estate to name a few. Cellular networks can bring a new dimension of reliability, security, coverage and seamless mobility to commercial drone operation, enabling connectivity and control of drones Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS). This will be key to safe, wide-scale drone operation and the many new services enabled by them in the years to come. AT&T and Qualcomm are joining forces to trial drone operation on AT&T’s commercial 4G LTE networks — testing key performance indicators (KPI’s) such as coverage, signal strength, throughput, latency and mobility under various real-world scenarios. Findings from this research will not only help us optimize 4G LTE networks for safe and reliable drone operation, but also inform positive developments in drone regulations and 5G specifications as they relate to wide-scale deployment of numerous drone and other mission-critical use cases.
Discussion: Greg Belaus ([email protected]), Lead Business Development – UAV, Internet of Things (IoT) Solutions Group, said AT&T’s “drone play” was to build a technology foundation for connected drones that would create a supporting ecosystem which is part of the Internet of Things (IoTs).
AT&T’s IoT DNA includes:
- 2.9M connected devices
- 9.4M connected vehicles
- IoT Platform tools include: M2X, global SIM card, LTE modem, internal use cases and collaboration
- IoT starter kit
AT&T plans to use drones for: cell tower inspection, a venue for real time performance validation, potential future use cases, eg. flying Cellular On Wheels (COWs). AT&Ts IoT Solutions Group is developing drone solutions for AT&T’s business customers.
Qualcomm is helping to build the drone ecosystem foundation. It will be used to characterize AT&Ts commercial LTE network at altitude, across its network infrastructure and locations. Recordings will include: flight path, time of day, network parameters (e.g. frequencies, hand-offs).
The Connected Drone Platform consists of:
- 4G LTE cellular connectivity
- Video transmitter
- GPS receiver
- Camera Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
- WiFi PCB
- Flight Controller PCB
The trials will analyze how UAS can operate safely and more securely on commercial 4G LTE and wireless networks of the future (such as “5G”). The research will look at elements that would impact future drone operations.
–>A key objective is to optimize AT&T’s LTE network for safe drone operations that use it.
Drone Applications mentioned were:
- Small farmer/agriculture
- Certify drone operators
- Drone fleet management
- Precision location tracking
More information at: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2016/09/06/qualcomm-and-att-trial-drones-cellular-network-accelerate-wide-scale
Other 2016 TC3 Session Summaries:
Highlights of Telecom Council TC3 Panel on 5G Telecom Regulation
Summary & Conclusions of SD-WAN sessions at Telecom Council’s TC3 Summit
Telecom Council 2016 SPIFFY Award Winners include Simless (Virtual SIM Card)
AT&T to use LTE, Cat-M1 & M2 for IoT Applications
AT&T is moving forward with LTE future for its cellular Internet of Things (IoT) applications, despite earlier suggestions that the network operator could consider other low-power, wide-area (LPWAN) specifications. The LTE only decision is consistent with AT&T’s existing LTE based IoT platform, which we described in an earlier article:
AT&T claims to have the largest share of the connected device market with 19.8M IoT devices or 47% of the U.S. total IoT market in 2013. There are GSM location tracking capabilities in over 100 countries with roaming access in more than 200 countries.
AT&T is a founding member of the Industrial Internet Consortium where over 100 companies are now involved. As part of that effort:
- IBM and AT&T are collorating on IoT solutions for cities, institutions, and enterprises.
- GE and AT&T are working on remotely controlled industrial machines.
“I think the decision that we have made as a company is that AT&T is going to standardize on the LTE stack as opposed to unlicensed bands,” Mobeen Khan, AVP of AT&T IoT Solutions, at AT&T Mobile and Business Solutions, told Light Reading Wednesday, June 22nd. AT&T has “many reasons” for the decision: The specialized IoT LTE technologies uses AT&T’s existing spectrum; it’s more secure and can be managed using existing infrastructure. “It has a lot of benefits for our customers,” Khan said.
AT&T is going to standardize on Cat-M1 (a.k.a. LTE-M) for devices like smart meters and wearables. Cat-M1 is optimized to offer a 1Mbit/s connection but with superior battery life compared to the typical 4G smartphone radio chipset. The operator has just approved its first modules for this specification. There will be trials in the forth quarter.
For even lower-power applications, AT&T will use Cat-M2 modules in units like smoke detectors and networked monitors. Cat-M2 is “still being specced out” but is anticipated to go to kilobits-per-second connection rates to further extend battery life, Khan said. AT&T will test Cat-M2 devices on the network in 2017 and hopes to go commercial early in 2018.
This doesn’t mean that AT&T won’t support any other types of networking for IoT. WiFi, Bluetooth and mesh networking will all be part of the mix. “We’re living in a multi-network world,” Khan said.
References:
http://www.lightreading.com/iot/iot-strategies/atandt-settles-on-lte-for-cellular-iot/d/d-id/724289
http://www.lightreading.com/iot/m2m-platforms/atandt-readies-low-power-lte-for-iot/d/d-id/720150
Energy versus security–the IoT tradeoff:
AT&T and other leading telcos are highlighting the security advantages of using cellular networks in licensed spectrum to connect IoT devices. They point to the benefits of having a SIM card authenticate the device on the network, such as being able to remotely bar devices, where necessary. Without a secure link, IoT applications may be more vulnerable to attacks, such as spoofing, where a fraudulent end device injects false data into the network or a fraudulent access point hijacks the data captured by a device.
2013 Ethernet Tech Summit- Market Research Panel & Carrier Ethernet Comment
Introduction:
This session covered the prospects for Ethernet in the enterprise, among carriers (especially for cellular backhaul), and in the data center. The session was chaired by Crystal Black, Channel Marketing Manager, APTARE
Panelists:
-Michael Howard, Infonetics Research
-Casey Quillin, Dell’Oro Group
-Sergis Mushell, Gartner
-Jag Bolaria, Linley Group
-Vladimir Kozlov, LightCounting
The summary of this panel will be posted at viodi.com shortly
Comment: Surprisingly, there wasn’t any talk about the Carrier Ethernet market, which was the subject of an all day track at this conference. Carrier Ethernet lets carrier businesses use low cost Ethernet systems to offer data services with all the operation, administration and Maintenance (OAM) features and benefits, including QoS. Existing Carrier Ethernet Services include Private Line, Ethernet Tree (point to multi-point) and Ethernet LAN (multi-point to multi-point). In addition, the MEF is positioning Carrier Ethernet 2.0 for use in wire-line access to Private Cloud services.
The problem seemed to be that there weren’t any carriers willing to participate in those sessions, so it was just equipment and silicon vendors talking to one another.
A new report forecasts the Global Ethernet Access Device market to grow at a CAGR Of 13.62% from 2012-2016.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130411006525/en/Research-Markets-Global-Ethernet-Access-Device-Market
Another highlight of the Ethernet Technology Summit was a Wednesday evening award ceremony to the “Unsung hero’s of Ethernet,” chosen by the IEEE Santa Clara Valley (SCV) section. They were: Dave Boggs who worked with Bob Metcalfe on the original 3M b/sec Ethernet (and whose name appears on the Ethernet patent), Ron Crane who designed the first working 10 Mb/s coax based Ethernet adapter interface at Xerox (which later became standardized by IEEE 802.3 as Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) Access Method and Physical Layer Specifications or simply 10Base5) and also co-founded 3Com Corp, Tat Lam who worked on the original version of Ethernet and early 10 Mb/s transceivers and long time IEEE ComSoc contributor Geoff Thompson for his hard work, long term support and leadership of Ethernet standards work in IEEE 802 (he was chair/vice-chair of the 802.3 WG for many years), TIA and the ISO.
The Unsung Heroes of Ethernet etched crystal plaques were paid for by the IEEE SCV section (the largest IEEE section in the world). They include an image of Bob Metcalfe’s original sketch of the Ethernet system.
Editor’s Note: This author has been a member of the IEEE SCV Executive Committee for many years and decades. He nominated Ron Crane and Geoff Thompson for their Unsung Hero of Ethernet awards. More info at:
References:
A video of this session is available at: http://www.papitv.com/ethernet-technology-summit-market-research-marketsinvestors-track-the-panelist-video-by-kc-leung
2013 Ethernet Tech Summit Presentations can be downloaded from:
http://www.ethernetsummit.com/English/Conference/Proceedings_Chrono.html
