b'An Innovative Secure MillimeterThis research developed a technical basis for the future research needed to Wave Machine-to-Machinemature the technology for a nationwide secure and reliable network supporting Communication Network formany government and public safety drones.Operating Drones R esearchers investigated novel approaches to improve spectral efficiency and security with 5th generation (5G) wireless networks using millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency bands to operate unmanned aerial vehicles with machine-to-machine communication. A new network approach will provide a superior alternative to existing methods with improved radio frequency coverage and resiliency against cyberattacks.TOTAL APPROVED AMOUNT:The team evaluated the security, reliability, and spectral efficiency of the proposed $1,377,500 over 3 years cellular network for unmanned aerial vehicles and drone operations under four primary experimental scenarios. The radio frequency coverage in the proposed drone PROJECT NUMBER:corridor when adding a separate set of antennas for drone coverage in the air while 19A39-023 the conventional set of antennas continued to provide coverage on the ground was PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:analyzed. The application of multiple-input and multiple-output access technology Arupjyoti Bhuyan to increase the spectral efficiency by covering a swarm of drones with a single mmWave beam and associated radio resources was investigated. Drone groupings CO-INVESTIGATORS: for non-orthogonal multiple access technology and rate-splitting multiple access Huaiyu Dai, North Carolina State University technology in presence of interference were optimized. Proposed power allocation Ismail Guvenc, North Carolina State University strategies for fingerprint-based authentication procedure when artificial noise is also transmitted for added security were analyzed. Pre-coders that can enhance physical layer security with channel information about the interference source were designed and evaluated. This research provided proof-of-concept to add a separate set of antennas for 5G coverage in the air for a nationwide drone corridor for 5G cellular drones. In the future, the Aerial Experimental and Research Platform for Advanced Wireless at North Carolina State University can be used to collect experimental data to further advance this research.(a) Drone corridor in a region of East Manhattan. (b) Optimal trajectories using 8x8 arrays at the base stations BS-1 and BS-2.115'