PSCR: Terese Manley highlights efforts to provide public safety with LTE coverage via untethered drones

Terese Manley, prize competition and challenge specialist for the Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Open Innovation team, discusses past and upcoming PSCR prize challenges that are designed to evaluate the capabilities of drones carrying an LTE base station to provide first responders with a wide swath of coverage in locations where typical terrestrial cell sites are unavailable.

The challenges call for the drones to weigh less than 55 pounds and to be untethered. By being untethered, the drone has greater flexibility in providing coverage where public-safety personnel needs it, but the requirement also creates power issues that limit the flight–and coverage–time.