Huawei SkySite: Drone with 5G base station & '5G Book' RRU

One of the announcements from Huawei that seem to have missed most of the articles, magazines & analysts is their SkySite Drone with a 5G Base Station and a RRU called '5G Book'. 

Picture Source: Various, see references at the bottom

While Huawei calls SkySite as a drone with integrated 5G base station, I am assuming that the BBU (or CU in 5G) is located on the ground. The tethering is used for providing power as well as fiber for communication between the CU/DU on the ground as the '5G Book' RRU on the drone.

EE was the pioneer of these tethered drones (called Airmasts initially and E.M.M.A. later) as you can see from this video by ThinkSmallCell here.

The drone is designed for emergency coverage after a site failure due to technical issues or natural disasters like earthquakes or floods. The drone weighs just 7 kgs. Tethering allows the drone to be up for a few days. From my past experience, the limiting factor was the motors on the drone getting hot. It can still remain in air between 2-4 days.

We're currently at @Huawei's pre #MWC19 briefing. please excuse the long distance photography - here's a look at their #drone mounted Book RRU #5G cell which can provide 20-30km2 of coverage while flying at 100 metres. Weighs only 7kg. pic.twitter.com/B1cRJrePu8

— Land Mobile magazine (@Land_Mobile) February 20, 2019

According to Developing Telecoms:

In his introduction, President of Carrier Business Group Ryan Ding focused on the vendor’s growing role as a provider of humanitarian communications solutions by unveiling the new Huawei 5G Skysite. Using a new ‘Book’ radio unit weighing only 7 kilos, 5G Skysite is 40% lighter than the outgoing 4G Skysite. The 5G Skysite antenna is supported 100 meters above ground by a drone and the entire base station can be set up in five minutes, to give between 30-40 square kilometres signal coverage.


References:

• Huawei SkySite: Drohne mit 5G Basisstation - MaxWireless (German)
• Land Mobile Magazine Tweet
• Da Huawei nuove soluzioni per il 5G, anche il drone che si alza in volo per supportare le comunicazioni d'emergenza - hwupgrade.it (Italian)
• Huawei Focus on Emerging markets at MWC19 - Developing Telecoms

Related Posts:

• Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: Drones, More Drones & Droneway
• Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: Drone cells are becoming a reality
• Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: Flying Small Cells are here...
• Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: Turkcell Marks a 'First in the World in 5G' with Domestic Drone Technology
• Macrocells, Small Cells & Hetnets Tutorial

T-Mobile USA: Anatomy of A Mobile Wireless Network

T-Mobile has a nice educational video on what makes a network looking at backhaul, small cells, etc. I have posted about T-Mo small cells here and here before. I have also pointed out that the definition of Small cells varies from country to country and USA is no exception. In the USA, RRH's are often referred to as small cells due to their small form factor but I disagree. You can see this earlier post on Macrocells, Small Cells & Hetnets Tutorial.

Here is the video on the anatomy of a mobile wireless network.

Wireless: Anatomy of A Network from T-Mobile National Development on Vimeo.