Drone flight using 5G: Initial experiments

Drones are used in an ever-increasing number of applications, including the autonomous delivery of medication and the inspection of industrial plants. To fulfil these tasks safely and reliably as they move through our airspace, drones need to be linked to high-performance cellular networks. The new mobile telecommunication generation 5G promises new possibilities with high data rates and low latency. Working with a 5G base station operated by Magenta in the Austrian community of Feichtendorf, a team of researchers from the University of Klagenfurt, Lakeside Labs GmbH, Magenta Telekom GmbH and Deutsche Telekom AG has recently conducted drone tests in a commercial 5G network. The scientific results were presented at the ACM MobiSys conference in mid-June.

Rapid increase in the volume of video transmissions: Work is in progress on a new intelligent video platform

By the year 2022, video content will account for almost 79 percent of mobile data traffic. This means that the level is expected to increase nine-fold in just five years from 2017 to 2022. These ever-growing magnitudes pose new challenges for modern technologies. In a research alliance between the Department of Information Technology, bitmovin GmbH and the joint CD laboratory ATHENA, researchers are now working on a new cloud-based video platform that can keep pace with current demands. Read more →

New tools for swarms of machines

Moving intelligently, robots deployed in a warehouse shift crates from A to B – without getting in each other’s way. What sounds like a very simple example has only recently been made possible thanks to new tools developed in the EU Horizon 2020 project CPSwarm. The project is now in its final phase and the “toolkit” is freely available online for all developers.

Using existing cellular networks for drones

It might soon become common for drones to transport goods and people, monitor disaster zones, and bring various forms of relief to areas that are difficult to access. Which communication infrastructure is best suited to facilitate this? Researchers at the University of Klagenfurt have explored potential challenges associated with the use of traditional cellular networks.