The system analyzes radio signals reflected by objects, using geographically separated sites to transmit and receive sensing signals. Observing an object from several angles helps improve positioning and maintain its track as it moves through the coverage area, according to Ericsson.
The company said validated tests reliably detected and tracked micro drones at kilometer-scale distances with precise three-dimensional positioning. Performance varies with the target, its flight path, the arrangement of sensing sites, terrain, surrounding conditions and system configuration.
“Detecting small drones across large areas is a growing operational challenge. The possibility of using distributed infrastructure to complement existing sensors could provide an important additional layer of situational awareness,” said Carl Lundqvist, chief architect at Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters.
Something that is pretty interesting about publicly shared communications networks like 5G is that their saturation and high usage by all of us can be leveraged for public safety, by virtue of having cell towers everywhere and making sure to provide good coverage consistently over large areas the infrastructure necessary for mobile smartphone use inherently created a public capacity to sense small things intruding into it in ways that are highly unusual… i.e. you can detect drones. This is a metaphor for an idea that extends to a lot of abstract places too.
Another manifestation of this idea is the rapidly evolving use of pre-existing fiber optic internet cable infrastructure to seismically and acoustically sense nearby objects/the ground. The science is complex but the idea is still kind of the same. When we created extremely long lengths of fiber optic cable that could transmit millions and millions of cat videos back and forth at lightning speed and high bandwith, we also simultaneously created an extremely powerful sensor that we can use to see into the ground and detect things moving nearby… like whales!
Article about detecting whale acoustic calls with pre-existing fiber optic cable infrastructure.
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2022/07/existing-fiber-optic-cables-can-monitor-whales
Article about detecting silent whales moving through the water column through special water/solid interface waves that bodies moving through the water create.
Our collective data streams and the infrastructure and mediums they are conveyed by create a sort of collective ability to sense… isn’t that weird/cool???