Ericsson has developed technology that can detect and track low-flying drones using mobile radio waves. The system has already been tested in the US and Finland, with the first commercial pilots planned for 2027.
Ericsson has developed technology that can detect and track low-flying drones using mobile radio waves. The system has already been tested in the US and Finland, with the first commercial pilots planned for 2027.
This is reported by The Register with reference to Ericsson.
The technology is called Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC). It works on a principle similar to radar: one base station emits radio waves, they reflect off the drone, and other stations pick up the reflected signal. The system then analyzes this data, determines the drone's location, and tracks its movements.
In both tests, the system was able to simultaneously locate multiple drones and track their routes. According to Ericsson, during the tests, the technology was even able to detect microdrones from a distance of several kilometers.
Ericsson explains that low-flying drones can be difficult to detect with conventional radar. But mobile antennas are already aimed at relatively low altitudes, where such devices often fly. For mobile networks to be able to detect drones, special 5G equipment with a large number of antennas is needed, as well as servers and programs that will analyze the reflected radio waves and determine the coordinates of the drones.
In the future, the technology could also gain more capabilities thanks to 6G, as new standards and frequency bands could potentially allow for more accurate positioning of small and fast objects.
Previously, dev.ua wrote that Ukrainian researchers from Zvook, KPI, and Kyiv School of Economics taught AI to better recognize small drones by sound.
