GSMA Drone Interest Group – Deep Dive #1 – How cellular networks are capable to handle the UAV layer
Start: Wednesday 25 May 2022 15:00
End: Wednesday 25 May 2022 17:00
Venue: Teams Online
The GSMA Drone Interest Group hosted their first deep dive session on 25th May from 3pm to 5pm BST (UK). The session provided a brief overview of the UAS related activities in 3GPP by Helka-Liina Määttänen from Ericsson, also a 3GPP RAN2 delegate.
We also heard about real life experiences supporting drones from the Mobile Operator perspective, presented by Francesca Stockton, Product Manager for Verizon Robotics. She touched upon network quality and management, use cases and related performance and also spectrum.
About the GSMA Drone Interest Group (DIG):
The GSMA Drone Interest Group (DIG) consists of mobile operators and GSMA associate members from around the world, working with UAS and UTM suppliers and other ecosystem players to encourage the use of cellular communications for drones. The aim of the DIG is to explore opportunities for mobile connectivity to be deployed in commercial drones, share industry knowledge and position mobile operators as key enablers for the autonomous BVLOS growth.
Find out more and let us know if you’re interested in joining: www.gsma.com/iot/drones-interest-group-dig/
Helka-Liina Määttänen
3GPP RAN2 delegate, Ericsson
Francesca Stockton
Aviation Connectivity Product Manager, Verizon Robotics
Francesca Stockton is an influential, results-oriented technology leader in the aerial cellular technology, drone, and robotics industries. She currently works as the Aviation Connectivity Product Manager for Skyward, a Verizon company. Through her keen business acumen and unique background, she is leading efforts on the development of cellular network services for use in the aviation industry, with a special focus on the integration of drones into the National Airspace System (NAS). As an industry expert, she supports several teams including R&D, product development, policy and regulatory, and flight testing to assess how network features, services, and configurations work in the sky.
Prior to joining Skyward, Francesca was a hardware and applications engineer in contract product design and consulting. Currently, she is focused on 5G and advanced network services, and how this transformational technology can be applied to aviation. Francesca holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Washington State University. She is from the Pacific Northwest and is currently based out of Atlanta, GA.
Barbara Pareglio
Senior Technical Director, Smart Mobility Lead, GSMA
Since 2014, she has been the technical lead for several areas of focus within the GSMA such as 5G, IoT, automotive, aviation and more. Looking at how to best utilise new technologies and services from the constantly evolving mobile networks, like 5G-Advanced.
Barbara is also leading several activities and communities with the GSMA members, like the activities related to smart mobility, including automotive and advanced air mobility. The latter by leading the GSMA Drone Interest Group and the Aerial Connectivity Joint Activity, to investigate and help the mobile industry to create a trusted solution for commercial unmanned aircraft. Exploring features and capabilities of 4G and 5G needed for the aviation.
Barbara has over 20 years of experience in the mobile industry. Before joining the GSMA, Barbara worked in R&D in several areas of telecommunications. She also participates and actively contributed to, several standards.