Introduction
With the recent growth of the drone market, UAV platforms have matured and their payloads and use cases have diversified. 5G offers high bandwidth, massive connectivity, low latency, and high reliability, which can support UAV requirements across military, agricultural, power, and emergency-response tasks. The integration of drones and 5G is advancing, and this article summarizes typical application scenarios, highlights potential challenges, and outlines likely future trends.
01 Typical application scenarios
Low-altitude supervision
Drones equipped with high-definition cameras and loudspeakers can connect to command centers via 5G to provide real-time video and centralized dispatch, enabling remote monitoring and control of airspace, sea areas, and highways. Supported by 5G, artificial intelligence enables real-time route planning, intelligent takeoff and landing management, and autonomous detection and avoidance, which are important for smart low-altitude airspace governance. For example, in April 2021 Brussels Airport and Skeyes tested airport 5G-based drone surveillance, where high-definition aerial video aided aircraft departure scheduling. In April 2022, a maritime authority in Nanjing launched a '5G + drone' maritime supervision pilot, using a smart drone management platform to remotely command fixed-wing drones along predefined routes and stream regulatory data to a command center in real time.
Logistics delivery
Drone delivery has become a cost- and efficiency-focused initiative for logistics companies in China and abroad. 5G's high bandwidth and low latency enable real-time telemetry and video return while allowing ground operators to remotely control flight paths. In August 2020, a logistics company in Zhejiang completed a commercial cargo flight covering 10 km in 16 minutes with 5G support for full-process control. In March 2023, a European operator announced plans to build a 5G private network and test its ability to reliably transmit sensor, image, and flight data for logistics drones.
Power inspection
During power-line and base-station inspections, 5G uplink capacity allows drones to stream data from onboard HD cameras, infrared cameras, night-vision cameras, and LiDAR to backend servers for analysis with artificial intelligence algorithms. Automated fault detection reduces manual inspection labor and risk while improving efficiency. For example, a regional power utility in China used a 5G-connected drone system to stream real-time HD video to a control room and reduced inspection time from 30 minutes to 5 minutes. In October 2022, a telecom operator and an electric utility in Hubei deployed a 5G-sliced private network to enable intelligent drone inspection and secure data channels.
Agricultural plant protection
Agricultural plant-protection drones are among the fastest-growing industrial UAV segments. Combined with 5G, drones can stream real-time HD video of fields and crops for monitoring, and automate tasks such as pesticide spraying and seed sowing, reducing manual labor. In 2021, a demonstration in Liangshan, Sichuan Province showed 5G-controlled plant-protection drones completing pesticide spraying at a rate reportedly 20 times faster than manual work, covering 2 acres per minute.
Video streaming
Drones carrying panoramic cameras can stream 4K and higher-resolution live video over 5G, providing immersive remote viewing. In May 2018, a 5G-enabled drone demonstrated 4K panoramic live streaming in Shanghai. The same year, a large e-commerce company in Japan used 5G to transmit drone-shot 8K VR video for a smart stadium project. At the 2019 horticultural expo, a mobile operator and a technology vendor demonstrated 5G drone VR tourism. Subsequent deployments in regions such as Yunnan and Guangxi used 5G-enabled drone VR livestreaming to support tourism during pandemic-related travel restrictions.
Emergency response
Drones can respond quickly to natural disasters and public incidents, streaming real-time imagery over 5G to help identify critical factors. Drones can also carry temporary communication base stations to provide emergency coverage, allowing trapped individuals to connect to airborne networks and enabling active localization of their devices. Combined with real-time imagery and AI, this supports targeted rescue operations. During the July 2021 Zhengzhou floods, a Wing Loong II platform carrying a mobile base station helped establish an integrated emergency communication system that provided several hours of network coverage. In August 2022 wildfire response in Chongqing, a fleet of 12 5G-connected drones surveyed over 520 km2 in three days, relaying imagery to a command center and enabling timely interventions.
Swarm operations
Building unmanned swarm systems using advanced communication technologies, including 5G, has attracted attention internationally. 5G can provide new networking architectures for UAV swarms, improving intra-swarm situational awareness, data transfer, and coordinated command and control. When combined with edge computing and AI, computationally intensive tasks such as image recognition and autonomous obstacle avoidance can be offloaded to edge platforms, reducing onboard payload and power consumption while increasing mission capability. In September 2022, a defense contractor and a telecom operator demonstrated 5G-enabled ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) scenarios where multiple rotary-wing drones streamed low-power RF detection and sensing data via private 5G nodes to support tactical command.
02 Challenges
Although 5G has supported many military and civilian UAV applications, gaps remain in wide low-altitude coverage, anti-interference capability, and mobility support that need further improvement.
5G low-altitude coverage
In conventional mobile scenarios most terminals are ground-based and base stations are 30-50 m high, with RF main lobes oriented downward. 5G techniques such as massive MIMO and beamforming partially increase vertical beam angles and can improve coverage at certain altitudes. However, as UAV flight altitude increases, free-space path loss grows with the square of distance. It is necessary to adjust base-station main lobe direction via beamforming and other techniques according to actual flight altitude and range to improve aerial coverage.
5G interference resistance
Low-altitude airspace is an open environment where UAV 5G links face various interference sources, including malicious jamming and ambient noise, as well as self-interference from neighboring 5G networks. Precision narrow-beam targeting using massive MIMO beamforming, inter-cell coordination, and power control can reduce intra- and inter-cell interference. In addition, deploying dedicated 5G private networks for UAVs with comprehensive planning and a regulatory framework can mitigate neighboring-cell interference.
5G mobility support
5G mobility management builds on 4G mechanisms and optimizes measurement configuration, cell quality calculations, and handover procedures to improve ground mobility support at higher speeds. To ensure access and service quality for fast-moving UAVs, particularly military platforms, designs must specifically address Doppler shift mitigation, subcarrier spacing, and handover strategies.
03 Conclusion
UAV access to 5G enables rapid transmission of onboard sensor data, asset monitoring and management, route control, and efficiency gains, thereby expanding drone applications across low-altitude supervision, logistics, power inspection, agricultural protection, live video, emergency response, and swarm operations. These applications have significant economic and operational value. To further ensure safe UAV operations and unify currently separate application scenarios, a top-level low-altitude airspace management framework is needed. Promoting a smart low-altitude network ecosystem centered on 5G will help realize efficient, orderly drone operations and support a digitally managed low-altitude airspace.
