Analysis of the Possibility of Using Cellular Networks in Vehicular Networks and Remote-Control Channels of Drones in Terms of Delays

Well-developed and widely-deployed modern cellular networks, such as 4G LTE, 5G, etc. gains the interest among scientists, as well as manufacturers of mobile drones and road automotive transport, in the use of mobile data transfer services for solving various problems related to the control and coordination of actions of flying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also called drones, as well as ground vehicles (cars). However, if the problem with vertical coverage for flying drones has been extensively studied and solutions have been proposed to solve the discovered problems (some of which becomes implemented in 5G networks), the issue of delays in cellular networks has been studied very superficially and are presented as statistics for some specific routes only. This article contains an analysis of small packet delays for all LTE cells within the cellular network of one of the Latvian cellular operators. Experimental data were obtained using USB LTE dongles for the case when data is exchanged between two mobile users. The experimental results are presented in the form of a model of the delays of individual cells, some of which were experimentally estimated, and the other part was predicted statistically. Delays within each cell are analyzed separately and the obtained results are compared with the delay requirements for UAV remote-control, as well as for the vehicular networking.