IMR: MT: AirScope: A Versatile and Programmable UAV Platform for End-to-End Cellular Network Measurements in Rural Environments

Collecting accurate data on cellular network performance in rural areas is challenging due to several factors. Firstly, rural areas have a more dispersed population and a lower population density, which makes it difficult and expensive for cellular providers to establish and maintain sufficient infrastructure, resulting in variations in performance across different rural areas. Secondly, the limited number of people using network performance apps in rural areas makes the collected data less representative. Lastly, Large measurement areas with difficult terrains (agricultural fields, hills, etc.) complicates at-scale cellular measurement using existing tools. Despite these challenges, it is crucial to collect reliable and comprehensive measurement data at scale in rural areas, particularly with the emergence of novel use cases such as precision-ag, remote work, tele-health, online education, etc. Using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) opens new possibilities to perform measurements more efficiently. The goal of this project is to design, build, and publicly release hardware and software components for UAV-aided cellular radio access network (RAN) and end-to-end network measurements in rural areas. This project is aimed at designing and building several versatile and programmable UAV-based measurement platforms (dubbed AirScope) with integrated cellular modems and automatic flight controller for beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) scenarios. Through an integrated hardware and software design, command and control (C2), telemetry, and payload data are communicated through the commercial cellular network, thereby enabling both radio access and end-to-end cellular network measurements in rural areas. Furthermore, to enhance the efficiency of the data collection tool, a novel concept of measurement-aware trajectory design will be developed and implemented. Extensive evaluation campaign and data curation effort will result in an unprecedented dataset of cellular measurement data that can be used for a wide range of data-driven research projects. This project will introduce a unique symbiosis between the wireless communication and the aerospace engineering communities by creating a set of hardware and software tools that unify the knowledge and practical expertise of these two fields. As a result, this project will (i) enhance the undergraduate and graduate curriculum at the University of Kansas, (ii) involve undergraduate and underrepresented students in research, and (iii) introduce engineering fields to schoolchildren. Furthermore, a major outcome of this project will be software implementations and hardware development, which will be publicly released to the broader research community. This project will result in a systematic cellular measurement methodology for rural areas that be used for policy makers and the broader user community. All project outcomes, including software and hardware designs, integration steps, algorithms, and collected measurement data, will be made publicly available on the project website: https://hashemi.ku.edu/airscope This project is jointly funded by the Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS) program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.