In lock-step with the recent proliferation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) for a multitude of purposes, including commercial, research, military or recreational, the demand for safe and resilient systems has also risen. Heavier, more autonomous systems operating over increasingly critical environments such as cities have high requirements for risk mitigation that the default navigation solution of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) aiding of Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) cannot easily satisfy, thus stimulating demand for research and development in those fields.

Multiple approaches to addressing this problem exist, all with their respective advantages and disadvantages. One such approach that recently gained some traction is to exploit so-called Signals of Opportunity (SoP) for navigation purposes. These are radio signals that are outside of user control and used passively, including but not limited to radio or TV networks (DAB+, DVB-T), satellite signals (Starlink, Iridium), or cellular networks [1].

This work expands on previous research by the Authors, which measured the time-domain stability of real-world cellular signals [2], and investigates their suitability for navigation purposes. To achieve this, simulated signals with similar characteristics to those observed during the previous study are fed into a navigation platform. Both range and velocity constraints can be considered. The results show an improvement over non-aided navigation, and provide indications under which circumstances such a system can be used. In using the same simulation setup as previous work [3], a direct comparison between cellular and angle of arrival-based aiding is possible.

[1] Kapoor, R. et al.: UAV Navigation using Signals of Opportunity in Urban Environments: An Overview of Existing Methods. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.156
[2] Winter, A. et al.: Analysis of 5G and LTE Signals for Opportunistic Navigation and Time Holdover. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24010213
[3] Winter, A. et al.: Low-cost angle of arrival-based auxiliary navigation system for UAV using signals of opportunity. https://doi.org/10.1109/PLANS53410.2023.10139950.