ANTENNAE

"Emerging U-Space and UAM concepts envisage a new generation of small, highly manoeuvrable, and highly automated aircraft operating at low altitude, alongside existing helicopter and general aviation users. Coordination & deconfliction of large numbers of such aircraft operating in primarily urban environments requires new Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance (CNS) infrastructure to ensure safety of passengers, the public, and other stakeholders while supporting complex low-altitude operations. Leveraging the scalable waveforms of 5G New Radio (NR), modern IP-based software-defined networking, and distributed computing capabilities, ANTENNAE (dAta driveN cosT-Effective 5G iNtegrated CommuNication, Navigation, and Surveillance (CNS)-as-A-ServicE) proposes a flexible and resilient integrated CNS-as-a-Service model supporting both low-altitude piloted and U-Space operations, and builds upon the mature and growing family of 3GPP 5G standards including system architecture, deployment models, and commercial implementations. ANTENNAE will apply advanced modelling to validate the applicability of 3GPP standards to deliver low-altitude CNS functions, including the full range of aeronautical data services (through 5G eMBB & URLLC), navigation (through 5G-based A-PNT), and surveillance (through emerging A-SUR and joint communication & sensing (JCS) concepts). ANTENNAE will examine the architectural benefits of established 5G deployment models for providing distributed data services, network resilience, and scalability. ANTENNAE will also look to the future of the 3GPP standards by examining technologies under development in the 3GPP working groups for beyond 5G (""6G”) services. Finally, ANTENNAE will conduct a rigorous quantitative techno-economic analysis informed by these engineering models to assess the financial feasibility of deploying a scalable integrated CNS-as-a-Service through a 5G access network, with comparison to alternative technological approaches."

2024

2027