The day when hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones, would take over the sky is not too far away. In a step to make it a reality, Huawei Wireless X Labs announced the "Digital Sky Initiative" at the Eighth Global Mobile Broadband Forum that took place in London on Nov. 15-16.

The event, attended by more than 1,400 representatives from mobile telecom operators around the world, reviewed the current state of vertical industries, organizations working on sector standards, and the wireless network standards for the remote management of drones.

Huawei's Rotating CEO and keynote speaker at the event Ken Hu stressed how everything is connected and underlined that in today's world telecom operators have an almost unlimited growth potential.

Drone's flight problemHuawei Wireless X Labs discussed drone flights and how 5G frequencies can help overcome some of the current issues they face.

Zhou Yuefeng, chief marketing officer (CMO) of Huawei's Wireless Network Product Line, assessed the initiative that aims to promote the development of the drone applications and to carry out the low-altitude aerial digitized economy with advanced low-altitude network coverage.

"Flying taxis for personal transportation will soon be a reality. The combination of drones and cellular networks will redefine the airspace, transforming the way we travel, shop, and create. However, all current base stations are designed to serve humans and objects on the ground. Low airspace drones are supported by reflected signals and side lobe coverage. As a result, drones presently face severe signal interference challenges."initiative to solve NETWORK PROBLEMSZhou explained that the current network can only support a limited number of drone applications where aircraft fly below 120 meters.

"Network construction is the first step toward application innovation. The digital sky initiative aims to provide a 300-meter low airspace network coverage and create an advanced test environment for drone applications. The initiative will also support non-line-of-sight (NLOS) flight control verification and large volume data transmission to enable the low airspace digitized economy," Zhou said.

everything will be connected"We have to believe that everything from bicycles, street lights, and water meters to shipping containers can be connected to the network today and will communicate with each other in the future. All these are real opportunities. But we need a new model to catch them," said Huawei Rotating CEO Hu.

Suggesting a new "scale-out and scale-up approach," he advised telecom companies to prepare for more connections. He urged them to collaborate with business partners to develop value-added services that are based on the specific needs of industrial applications.

Hu also emphasized the importance of strengthening networks and making them smarter to support these value-added services.

"In order to increase network performance and pave the way for the 5G, telecommunication companies can start by accelerating the current 4.5G and NB-IOT setup. Operation and Maintenance [O&M] also need to be reviewed," he said.

Can these drones carry me?The concept of unmanned aerial transport is already being put to the test in Dubai and China. Some of these futuristic drones were also presented at the Broadband Forum's Wireless X Labs application area. I had the opportunity to try out one of these drones and see how it feels like, but it was hard for me to get in and out of the vehicle.

Once these drones hit the skies, they will use tons of data like identification, weight control, route, energy consumption, and weather. The new generation of 5G networks featuring ultra-large bandwidth, extremely-low latency, high reliability, and wide coverage will provide drones with greater abilities. Intelligent traffic management in the air will become a reality while the newly created digital airspace is set to transform city life.