Wireless Private Network Solution for Low-Altitude Aircraft Traffic and Logistics

With the rapid development of science and technology, the application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and manned low-altitude aircraft in the field of low-altitude transportation and logistics has become increasingly widespread. Ranging from express delivery and cargo transportation to emergency material delivery, UAVs, with their advantages of flexibility, high efficiency and low cost, are gradually changing the pattern of the traditional logistics industry. However, to realize the large-scale, safe and efficient operation of UAVs in low-altitude transportation and logistics, it is crucial to build a stable, reliable, secure and practical wireless private network.
Low-altitude aircraft mainly include UAVs, eVTOLs (electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft), helicopters, small fixed-wing aircraft and other products. Among them, the UAV market is growing rapidly. In 2023, the scale of China’s civil UAV industry reached 117.43 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32%, ranking first in the world. It is expected to exceed 200 billion yuan by 2025. In addition, with the expansion of UAV application scenarios in industry, industrial UAVs will become a development focus of civil UAVs in the future. According to Frost & Sullivan’s prediction, the market scale of China’s industrial UAVs will reach 155.5 billion yuan by 2025. According to the prediction of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the market scale of China’s low-altitude economy will reach 1.5 trillion yuan by 2025 and is expected to reach 3.5 trillion yuan by 2035.

Guoxin Longxin is rooted in the wireless communication industry. Among its portfolio, a variety of technologies and multiple series of wireless products are highly suitable for use in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), eVTOLs (electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft), helicopters, small fixed-wing aircraft and other low-altitude aircraft. They are particularly applicable to building reliable and secure dedicated networks for low-altitude aircraft. This article presents a wireless private network solution tailored to traffic and logistics in the low-altitude domain.

I. Current Application Status of Low-Altitude Aircraft in Low-Altitude Transportation and Logistics

1. Application Scenarios

Express Delivery: In remote areas or regions with inconvenient transportation, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can quickly deliver parcels to customers, shortening delivery time. For example, in mountainous areas and rural regions, traditional express transportation may take several hours or even days, while UAVs can complete the delivery in a short time.
Low-Altitude Transportation: Fixed routes are set up in low-altitude areas, and low-altitude aircraft such as helicopters, eVTOLs (electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft), and fixed-wing aircraft are deployed to carry out commercial activities including personnel transportation, tourism and sightseeing, and advertising.
Cargo Transportation: For small items such as medicines and spare parts, low-altitude aircraft like UAVs can realize point-to-point transportation, improving transportation efficiency. In cities, some enterprises have begun to use UAVs to transport goods between different warehouses.
Emergency Delivery: In emergency situations such as natural disasters, UAVs can quickly deliver emergency supplies to disaster-stricken areas, providing support for rescue work. After disasters like earthquakes and floods, roads may be damaged, and UAVs can overcome geographical obstacles to deliver supplies in a timely manner.

2. Challenges Faced

Communication Stability: During flight, UAVs (including manned low-altitude aircraft; UAVs will be used as an example below) are easily affected by factors such as terrain and weather, leading to communication signal interruption or instability. When flying in mountainous areas, signals may be blocked by mountains; in severe weather such as heavy rain and strong winds, communication quality will be seriously affected.
Network Coverage: The coverage of traditional public 4G/5G networks in low-altitude areas is insufficient, which cannot meet the communication needs of UAVs for long-distance and large-range flights. In some remote areas, public 4G/5G signals are weak or even non-existent, and signal blind spots pose safety hazards to flight control.
Data Security: UAV transportation involves important data such as cargo information and customer privacy. How to ensure the security of data during transmission is a key issue. Once data is stolen or tampered with, it may cause serious losses.
Flight Safety: For large-scale and regular operation of low-altitude aircraft, the networking of aircraft must first be resolved. The operation command and dispatch center and government flight management departments need to obtain real-time route information, flight data, and even video information—this is an important means to ensure flight safety, and also one of the key factors affecting the survival, development, and growth of the low-altitude economy. However, the real-time transmission of all information must rely on a reliable and secure dedicated network.

II. Wireless Networking System for Low-Altitude Aircraft

At present, Guoxin Longxin has a variety of products based on wireless network technologies, which can meet the networking needs of UAVs in different scenarios:

1. Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN) Technology

It adopts Guoxin Longxin’s iMAX-8000AI series 5G iMAX wireless private network system. Products in this series feature small size, low power consumption, high bandwidth, and support for 5G wide frequency. Under line-of-sight conditions for a single base station, the mobile communication transmission distance can reach 1-3 kilometers; multi-base station networking can meet the needs of large-scale UAV networking within an area of dozens of square kilometers. The iMAX series’ large-capacity access capability, intelligent wireless networking technology, and seamless roaming function can easily meet the private network networking needs of UAVs in fixed areas or along fixed routes. This series of products supports multiple networking structures such as point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, centerless mesh network (MESH), and hot standby ring network, making them particularly suitable for building private networks for UAVs engaged in high-reliability operations.

2. Wireless Local Area Network (WiFi) Technology

For large-scale civil UAV networking, if the UAVs are already equipped with WiFi networking terminals, a hundred-meter-level special wireless WiFi base station system can be considered. Products such as the iSAP-2450 series and iMAX-ACG600 are carrier-grade wireless WiFi base stations operating at 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz, which are based on the IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac standard and feature high power, high bandwidth, and high performance. They adopt a split structure and support large-scale point-to-multipoint (PTMP) networking, making them highly suitable for networking of airships and hot air balloons that fly at low speeds, over short distances, and in large quantities.

3. Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) 4G/5G Gateway

It adopts Guoxin Longxin’s iMAX-4GW300 series dual-mode gateway system or 5G multi-mode gateway iMWB-5GW1000. These wireless gateways support 4G/5G wide area networks. The system supports the establishment of virtual private networks (VPN) with “SD-CX cloud exchange + hardware VPN”, and has excellent features of enabling networking between UAVs and the command center as well as interconnection between UAVs. It is very suitable for providing remote, secure, and reliable networking solutions between medium and large UAVs and the command center.

4. Low-Frequency Wireless MESH Ad-Hoc Network Mobile Communication System

It adopts the low-frequency wireless MESH mobile communication system under Guoxin Longxin’s “Huanyou” (Magic Tour) brand. Among its products, the UAV wireless terminal Flybird1400 is specially customized for UAV mounting. The typical operating frequency of this system is 1.4GHz, and lower frequencies (e.g., 580MHz) can be customized. Thanks to the adoption of centerless mesh network technology and the long-distance transmission advantage of low frequencies, it is highly suitable for building ultra-long-distance communication private networks for low-altitude aircraft such as UAVs used by government and enterprise customers.

Guoxin Longxin has launched private network terminals for UAVs such as DJI M300/M350 and the 3TD model (with OSDK/PSDK interfaces) supporting Airport 2. These terminals can directly meet the interconnection needs between UAVs and base stations or the command center.

Given the wide application of DJI UAVs in the government and enterprise sector, it is obvious that the high-performance Flybird1400 has a very promising application prospect. We are also continuously iterating and developing it—reducing power consumption and weight, improving transmission performance, and preparing for the large-scale multi-UAV centralized management and control system in the future.

III. Wireless Private Network Solution for Low-Altitude Aircraft Traffic and Logistics

The schematic diagram of a typical wireless private network topology for low-altitude aircraft transportation and logistics is as follows:

1. Network Architecture

Core Network: Adopt advanced cloud computing technology to build a distributed core network, realizing centralized management and control of flight data of low-altitude aircraft. The core network needs to deploy a low-altitude aircraft centralized control platform, which, with strong computing and storage capabilities, can process a large amount of flight data in real time and accurately schedule and command low-altitude aircraft. The core network prioritizes the VRRP hot standby routing redundancy structure to ensure high reliability of the system and meet the needs of multi-network integration.
Transmission Network: Utilize multiple transmission methods such as optical fiber, FibeAir microwave, and iMAX wireless metropolitan area network to build a high-speed, stable, and secure transmission network, ensuring fast data transmission between the core network and the access network. In urban areas, optical fiber transmission is preferred to ensure the stability and high rate of data transmission; in remote areas or regions where it is difficult to lay optical fibers, FibeAir microwave or iMAX wireless metropolitan area network transmission is used as a supplement.
Access Network: Deploy a large number of small Huanyou low-frequency MESH system base stations (for UAVs) or iMAX wireless metropolitan area network base stations (for larger low-altitude aircraft) in low-altitude areas to form a cross-coverage access network, providing reliable communication access for low-altitude aircraft. These base stations adopt low-power consumption, high-gain, and long-distance design, which can effectively expand the signal coverage range, reduce the number of base stations to be erected, and effectively lower the investment. Low-altitude aircraft can realize interconnection with base stations as long as they are equipped with corresponding on-board terminals.

In scenarios where the investment in wireless private network construction is large or users have low security requirements, the access network can adopt the 4G/5G public network mode (provided that the 4G/5G public network signal coverage is good), but it must adopt the virtual private network mode of hardware VPN gateway + cloud exchange to improve the security and reliability of the system.

2. Key Wireless Technologies

Adaptive Network Selection: Low-altitude aircraft operate in different scenarios and vary in size, resulting in different communication requirements. “Private network as the mainstay, public network as a supplement” may be the most suitable solution for most scenarios, which is “multi-network integration”. It can automatically select an appropriate network according to changes in the flight environment to ensure communication stability.
Adaptive Wireless Technology: In private network working mode, low-altitude aircraft can roam between different base stations. When entering an area with weak signals, the transmission power is automatically increased; when interference is encountered, it automatically switches to other frequencies. In public network working mode, it can automatically select 4G/5G base stations with better signals.
Wireless Communication Technology: Advanced multiple access technologies such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and MESH (centerless mesh network) are adopted to allow multiple UAVs to access the network simultaneously, improving the utilization of network resources. Through the application of technologies like OFDMA and MESH, different UAVs can communicate on different subcarriers to avoid mutual interference.
Encryption Technology: Data transmitted by UAVs is encrypted using encryption algorithms such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to ensure data security and integrity. Before data transmission, the data is encrypted; at the receiving end, the data is decrypted to prevent data from being stolen or tampered with. Especially in the private network mode, which is isolated from the public network and serves only a single customer, the security is higher.

IV. Advantages of the Low-Altitude Private Network Solution

Using a wireless private network to enable connectivity for low-altitude aircraft offers distinct advantages, as outlined below:

1. High Stability
By building a dedicated wireless private network, external interferences (such as those from complex public networks) are reduced. This enhances communication stability during the operation of low-altitude aircraft, ensuring a reliable connection with the ground control center is maintained throughout the flight.

2. Wide Coverage
The adoption of a distributed network architecture and multiple transmission methods expands the network coverage range, meeting the flight communication needs of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) across different regions.

3. Guaranteed Data Security
Advanced encryption technologies and security management mechanisms are employed to safeguard the security of data transmitted by UAVs, preventing data leakage and tampering.

4. Strong Scalability
The architecture of the wireless private network is designed based on specific on-site conditions and customer requirements, resulting in excellent scalability. As the business involving low-altitude aircraft evolves, the network can be easily upgraded and expanded to accommodate growth.

5. High Cost-Effectiveness
The construction of a wireless private network for low-altitude aircraft requires a one-time investment. Subsequent costs—such as expensive data packages and link rental fees from telecom operators—can be reduced or even eliminated. For the operation of dedicated transportation and logistics routes, this significantly lowers operational costs, making it an extremely cost-effective solution.

V. Typical Scenarios of Low-Altitude Private Networks

Examples of typical application scenarios of this solution are as follows:

1. UAV delivery in remote areas by a certain express company
A certain express company uses UAVs for express delivery in some remote mountainous areas. By building a wireless private network for low-altitude aircraft transportation and logistics, stable communication between UAVs and the ground control center has been realized. In the past, express delivery in these areas took a long time and cost a lot. But now, UAVs can deliver express items to customers in a short time, which greatly improves the delivery efficiency and reduces transportation costs.

2. Transportation of Medical Supplies Within a City by a CertainHospital

A medical enterprise uses UAVs to transport medical supplies such as medicines and blood within the city. Through the wireless private network, it has realized the precise scheduling of UAVs and the real-time transmission of medical information. Before using UAVs for transportation, the delivery relied on ground transportation, which was easily affected by traffic congestion. Now, UAVs can quickly and accurately deliver the supplies to the destination, improving the timeliness of hospitals in obtaining medical supplies and providing support for the medical cause of saving lives and healing the wounded.

3. Aerial Special Routes in Scenic Areas by a Tourism Enterprise

A tourism enterprise uses helicopters for tourist transportation and sightseeing within scenic areas. Through the wireless private network, it has realized the precise scheduling of helicopters, eVTOLs (electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing aircraft), airships, and other vehicles, as well as the real-time transmission of information. This not only significantly improves the efficiency of tourist travel and solves traffic congestion, but also serves as a newly developed tourism project to attract visitors and generate profits.

Overview

The wireless private network solution for low-altitude aircraft transportation and logistics is the key to realizing the large-scale application of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) in the field of low-altitude transportation and logistics. By building a stable and reliable wireless private network, it can effectively solve problems such as UAV communication stability, network coverage range and data security, promote the rapid development of UAVs in the field of low-altitude transportation and logistics, and bring new changes to the transportation and logistics industry.
There is no perfect technology, only a suitable solution. The various wireless technologies and products in the solution each have their own advantages and disadvantages, but they all have suitable application scenarios in the low-altitude economy. Moreover, they all require solution customization, and even product customization and modification, according to the user’s usage needs. One of the core capabilities of Guoxin Longxin is to deeply and accurately grasp the actual needs of users, help users customize the most suitable products and solutions, and provide worry-free after-sales service. For UAV-related application cases, please refer to Case Sharing of UAV Wireless Private Network Applications.
Guoxin Longxin’s solutions are based on the company’s years of application experience accumulation and rich product lines in various wireless technologies such as WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network), WMAN (Wireless Metropolitan Area Network) and WWAN (Wireless Wide Area Network). Furthermore, all solutions are highly customized designs based on users’ actual needs, so they can meet the reliable networking needs of various low-altitude aircraft. Customers with actual needs are welcome to call for consultation!