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A UAV-assisted Communication Infrastructure for 5G has been developed by the researchers from GS Sanyal School of Telecommunication at IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), Kharagpur which will assist as an airborne mobile telecom tower in case of emergency.

As per the statement issued by the IIT Kharagpur source, an android-based application system is fitted to the fleet of drones. This system is programmed to create communication networks in case of emergency from the closest available towers (mobile towers).

The head of the research team Prof. Debarati Sen informed, "The data in the telecommunication backbone network is relayed to the rescue server, located thousands of miles away, within the first three minutes of the occurrence of a disaster".

The system will help in connecting the network of the disaster-hit area through the nearest mobile tower. The drones can also avoid network disruptions by changing their location.

Sen also mentioned, "We have already studied the performance of the UAV network with the app 'NerQuake in situations of emergency response in disaster management and maintenance of the quality of service by deploying a fleet of four unmanned aerial vehicles. We have used network coverage data of various mobile service providers in the northeastern states in verifying the functionality of the app".

These drones can also be used for crowd management and in agriculture to monitor crop health, as claimed by the researchers.

The Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is funding the project and the team has submitted the phase-I report to the Ministry. The researchers are also open to the commercialization of the system.