The future takes flight: AT&T and Ericsson demonstrate drone detection outside of AT&T Stadium

AT&T and Ericsson demonstrated drone detection using advanced network sensing over a 5G network, showing how capabilities often associated with future 6G systems can begin coming to life today. The demo was conducted in authorized airspace outside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, during one of the largest global sporting events in the world. Using Ericsson technology and AT&T network expertise, it detected and located multiple drones, then tracked their movement, illustrating how wireless infrastructure could help protect major venues, critical infrastructure and other key locations.

This showed how advanced network features can be enabled using 5G capabilities as the industry momentum towards 6G standardization and subsequent deployment accelerates. Critically, the same underlying capabilities could support new levels of low altitude threat detection and tracking around major venues, public spaces and other complex environments. Using existing cellular towers, Ericsson deployed its Massive MIMO radios across multiple sites, creating a multi-static sensing configuration. The demonstration combined sensing-enabled radio transmissions with advanced signal processing and AI-enabled sensing algorithms to detect, locate, and track the drones in real time, The network utilized the radio signals typically used for communications to enable real-time environmental sensing, while delivering a total cost of ownership advantage for nation-wide coverage. In the demonstration, multiple drones flying at altitudes between 300 and 400 feet within the coverage area were successfully detected, localized, and continuously tracked by the sensing technology. By combining observations from multiple synchronized sensing nodes, the technology provided enhanced detection reliability, improved positioning accuracy, and robust target tracking.