A survey on Cellular-connected uavs: Design Challenges, Enabling 5G/B5g innovations, and Experimental Advancements

2.1. Key Contributions
The key contributions of this work are the following. The
final column of Table
2
, bearing the heading “This Work",
also summarizes the contributions made in this work:
• To present an overview of emerging applications and
taxonomy of use cases for cellular-connected UAVs;
• To highlight the state-of-the-art trends of communica-
tion requirements of UAVs and detailed discussion of
design challenges, which must be accounted for suc-
cessful integration of this technology within 5G/B5G
cellular systems;
• To showcase the emerging 5G technology innova-
tions in network architectures such as virtualization &
softwarization of network resources, slicing & phys-
ical layer improvements in the interest of cellular-
connected UAVs;
• To present the detailed efforts for design and develop-
ment of experimental testbeds, trials and prototyping
carried out by academia, industries and standardiza-
tion bodies to understand the gap of theoretical analy-
sis and realistic deployments;
• To identify a fairly exhaustive outline of features
for realization of an ideal experimental prototype for
cellular-connected UAV & existing works to achieve
them;
• To discuss about the ongoing standardization ac-
tivities, regulatory frameworks, market and socio-
economic issues that must be thoroughly investigated
before successful and widespread adoption of cellular-
connected UAVs;
• To present insights to future research opportunities.
The high level organization of this work is summarized
in Fig.
3
.
Related Surveys and
Tutorials
Taxonomy of UAV
Applications & Use
cases
Integration Challenges
of UAVs over 5G
Synergies of 5G/B5G
innovations for Cellular-
connected UAVs
Design Trials and
Prototyping
Standardization &
Socio-economic
Concerns
Conclusions 
Existing surveys & tutorials,
key contributions
3GPP standardization, 
regulatory framework, market &
social challenges 
Experimental test-beds, 
field trials
3D Coverage, channel model,
system ops & mobility, trajectory
optimization, security concerns
Exploration of various emerging
cellular connected UAV
applications & diverse use cases
Key 5G technology innovations in
network architectures,
virtualization & softwarization &
PHY layer improvements
Concluding remarks
Introduction
Overview of UAV Cellular 
Communication Fundamentals
Future Outlooks
Future research opportunities
Figure 3:
High level organization of this work
D. Mishra et al.:
Preprint submitted to Elsevier
Page 4 of 30

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A Survey on Cellular-connected UAVs: Design Challenges, Enabling 5G/B5G Innovations, and Experimental Advancements
T
able
2
Existing
surveys
and
tuto
rials
fo
r
U
AV
cellula
r
communication
Broad
Catego
ry
References
→→
Contributions
↓↓
[
8
]
[
10
]
[
19
]
[
25
]
[
26
]
[
27
]
[
28
]
[
9
]
[
29
]
[
30
]
[
20
]
[
14
]
[
31
]
[
5
]
[
32
]
[
33
]
[
34
]
[
35
]
[
23
]
This
W
o
rk
Nature
of
Integration
UA
V-Assisted
Cellula
r
Comm
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Cellula
r-Assisted
UA
V
Comm
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Applications &
Use
cases
Applications &
Use
cases
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Design
&
Challenges
Technical Challenges
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Propagation Channel
Mo
dels
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Mobilit
y
&
Handovers
✓
✓
Trajecto
ry
Optimization
✓
✓
✓
Technology
&
Exp
eriment
Net
w
ork
Architecture
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
5G/B5G Innovations
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Exp
erimental
Protot
yping
✓
✓
Ideal
Features
of
Protot
yp
e
✓
Ha
rmonization
&
Co
mplia
nce
Standa
rdization
✓
✓
✓
Regulations
✓
✓
✓
Communication Requirement
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
So
cio-
economic Concerns
Securit
y
Asp
ects
✓
✓
✓
So
cial
Concerns
✓
✓
Ma
rk
et
Concerns
✓
D. Mishra et al.:
Preprint submitted to Elsevier
Page 5 of 30

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A Survey on Cellular-connected UAVs: Design Challenges, Enabling 5G/B5G Innovations, and Experimental Advancements
First, we begin with the detailed taxonomy of appli-
cation domains and corresponding use cases for cellular-
connected UAVs, and then highlight the key integration
challenges of UAVs being supported from cellular 5G/B5G
systems. For seamless integration, the recent technical inno-
vations of 5G/B5G mobile network architectures and phys-
ical layer improvements are also presented. Then, we high-
light the testbeds, field trials and measurement campaigns
that showcase some early efforts to develop working proto-
types of cellular-connected UAV. Furthermore, the ongoing
standardization works, regulatory and socio-economic con-
cerns are also discussed that must be accounted before suc-
cessful adoption of this new technology.