Thanks to support in the form of a three-year, $1.33 million grant from NASA’s University Leadership Initiative, researchers at North Carolina State University will launch a project that seeks to research and develop high-performance communications, networking and air traffic management (ATM) systems, which includes navigation and surveillance for UAS, as well as manned aircraft.

​The NC State Group will work with David Matolak from the University of South Carolina (USC), Hani Mehrpouyan from Boise State University, and Benjamin Boisvert from Architecture Technology Corporation (ATCorp) to develop “multi-band radio designs, “millimeter wave” (mmWave) propagation measurements/modeling, navigation and surveillance techniques for manned/unmanned aircraft, and ATM simulations.”

“Our work is part of a four institution, $4.4 million project led by the University of South Carolina,” says Ismail Guvenc, who is leading the effort at NC State.

“Ultimately, our work will help to ensure that we have safe airspace for UAVs and conventional aircraft.”

Guvenc’s team will take the lead on finding new ways to detect and track UAS (including those that are unauthorized) in the U.S. airspace. There are multiple components to the initiative.  

First, the researchers plan to identify and classify UAS using radar techniques. This can be challenging since most UAS are a lot smaller than the aircraft that conventional radar technologies are designed to track.

Next, Guvenc’s team will develop techniques for identifying wireless video or remote control signals used by UAS, and following that, those signals will be used to locate and track UAS.

Third, the researchers will develop techniques and technologies that can be used to identify and track UAS or other devices that are jamming communication signals.

An example of this is the researchers planning to develop "software that can trace jamming signals, even if the signals are “non-line-of-sight,”” which means that the signals are being bounced around instead of traveling in a straight line.

​The NC State Group, USC and Boise State will also work together to “improve the research community’s understanding of how mmWave signals behave in and around airports.”

Millimeter wave (also known as “5G”) signals are radio waves with frequencies between 30 and 300 gigahertz (GHz). There isn’t very much known about how these signals are affected by the physical environment in and around airports, but they are expected to play an integral role in UAS applications, communications technology and avionics.

NC State will take the lead on characterizing millimeter wave signals at 30 GHz. Boise State will investigate signals at 60 GHz, and USC will investigate signals at 90 GHz.

Guvenc says that there is a long road ahead for the research teams, but he is confident that the work will be beneficial down the line.

“We have a lot of work to do over the next three years, but the results should eventually help us use our airspace more safely and efficiently,” Guvenc says.