Cellular 4G LTE Aeronautical Mobile Telemetry Flight Test Results

Abstract

Flight test results on an Aeronautical Mobile Telemetry (AMT) system employing 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) Cellular Technology are presented. The AMT system comprises a ground network of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) cellular base stations. Very high Doppler shifts due to the high speed of the Test Article (TA) are handled by an appliqué front-end to a COTS mobile transceiver. Doppler compensation allows seamless operation of LTE as the TA traverses the coverage area. An uninterrupted radio link as well as high bi-directional data rates were achieved even at a distance of 60 Km between the base stations and the TA. The results clearly demonstrate that the system can sustain an uninterrupted LTE connection at Doppler shifts that are much higher than what typical commercial LTE systems can support. The 4G system featured in this exercise has a direct extension to 5G technologies.