Preliminary Field Results of a Dedicated 5G Positioning Network for Enhanced Hybrid Positioning

Dedicated fifth generation (5G) positioning networks are envisaged as a key technology to complement Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) in challenging situations, such as safety-critical automotive and aerial applications. These 5G networks are explicitly designed to fulfil the positioning needs in a specific environment, by using dedicated pilot signals and locating the base stations (BSs) in favorable conditions for user reception. To prove this concept, the Hybrid Overlay Positioning with 5G and GNSS (HOP-5G) testbed demonstrates the enhanced positioning capabilities resulting from the deployment of ground and aerial BSs. This paper presents a preliminary assessment of the first real-time ranging measurements obtained with a flying BS in a dedicated 5G positioning network. Under hovering and optimal conditions, field results obtained over an 80 MHz downlink bandwidth indicate a ranging precision below 1 m in 95% of cases.