Long-Distance Ground-to-Air Communications Over LTE Demonstrated

By Mike Ball / 02 Jan 2020
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Perspecta Labs Velocite 4G LTE ground to air communicationPerspecta Labs has announced that it has successfully demonstrated long-distance, high-bandwidth data streaming between a test aircraft and a 4G LTE (long-term evolution) ground communications network. The test, performed at Edwards Air Force Base in collaboration with the DOD Test Resource Management Center, was part of the U.S. Department of Defense Cellular Range Telemetry Network (CeRTN) program. Although this test was performed with a manned aircraft, Perspecta Labs plans to also adapt its Velocite solution for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and drones.

The contract for this program was originally awarded in October 2016, and Perspecta Labs, then known as Vencore Labs, was tasked with developing a system that would leverage commercial cellular technology for aeronautical mobile telemetry (AMT) applications at DOD Major Range and Test Facility Bases (MRTFB).

The system developed by Perspecta Labs, known as Velocite, uses low-cost commercial off-the-shelf LTE cellular technology to deliver high-bandwidth data communications at supersonic aircraft speeds. The transceiver applies state-of-the-art Doppler compensation and easily integrates with any standard LTE user equipment to maintain a robust data link.

Velocite is vendor agnostic, operates without the need for per-flight frequency coordination and provides bi-directional high-speed data connectivity to aircraft. It uses intelligent LTE network design to reliably deliver high-bandwidth data communications for aircraft at speeds of 1,000 kph and above.

Petros Mouchtaris, president of Perspecta Labs, commented: “Perspecta Labs’ Velocite solution offers considerable savings in cost, time and resources for critical applications in flight testing, training and operations. We are excited to mature this technology from laboratory testing through successful field demonstrations and to deliver these substantial benefits to our customers.”

Posted by Mike Ball Mike Ball is our resident technical editor here at Unmanned Systems Technology. Combining his passion for teaching, advanced engineering and all things unmanned, Mike keeps a watchful eye over everything related to the unmanned technical sector. With over 10 years’ experience in the unmanned field and a degree in engineering, Mike’s been heading up our technical team here for the last 8 years. Connect & Contact
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