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22 By the time he left Italy, in 2014, for Germany to seek further finance to develop A2Tech, the EFD was using small, multi-copter UAVs such as the DJI Phantom series for local situational awareness, as well as manned light aircraft for long-range missions. Cloud formation He traces his involvement in robust networking and data centres back to when he was working for an Apple computer reseller in the mid-to-late 1990s. “We had a customer, a music production company, that needed to transfer large amounts of data from one computer to the other, and to share the data at high speed,” he recalls. “That got me into Fibre Channel, a technology that enabled 1 Gbit/s networks when Ethernet was at 100 Mbit/s. “Now everything is connected. BVLOS fleets are purely cloud-based operations using either cellular networks or satellite constellations,” he says. “Data centres are the heart of long-range operations, particularly custom BVLOS applications running VPNs, fleet management, data post-processing, and for the cellular data links in which end-to-end comms are based on global IPX backbones to transport data.” The value of data centres to airborne surveillance was demonstrated during his time with the EFD in combination with Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) 3G cellular technology. “Back in 2010, when we used light aircraft, we used data centres to send snapshots via UMTS to an image server so that the emergency operation centre could retrieve them instantly,” he says. “That would not have been possible without the use of a data centre. “Since then, the combination of cellular comms and data centres has had a profound effect on drone operations, with multinationals such as Amazon running fleets of them from operations centres using 4G or 5G links for drone- to-cloud comms,” he notes. “Only the availability of these mobile networks enables BVLOS drone fleets operations; RF links or satellite links are not an option. “There are a lot of developments in this field, and the large mobile network operators see new business opportunities in drone-specific data plans and services with a guaranteed quality of service.” Creating and setting up VPN-protected drone-to-cloud comms systems correctly is a complex task, he says. “You need to deal with topics such as redundancy, latency, bandwidth, signal coverage and integrity, back-up links such as satellite, local regulations, rules and approvals, and scalability.” Integrated comms In 2019, Puff founded LikeAbird, effectively as a successor to A2Tech, to focus on OEM electronics and engineering services for uncrewed systems. “My primary job is watching the market, its evolution, needs, wants and available technologies,” he explains. “My background knowledge ranges from companies and materials to components and software applications, so I look for parts that are best suited to each specific solution.” Current projects include developing a backpack GCS and router for rapid deployment (see our DroneX report in UST 46, October/November 2022), and a new generation of airborne smart router with link fusion between RF bearers, redundant 4G/5G cellular comms and satellite links. The challenges faced when integrating cellular and satellite comms into UAVs often depend on the requirements and expectations, he says. Size and weight remain a perennial challenge in airborne systems, while fusion of cellular and satcom links for smooth end-to- end comms are essential to meeting evolving market expectations. “Prices are also a challenge, as our solutions are not as cheap as those that customers sometimes put together in-house, or those that come from China.” UAV developers often want to create their own comms solutions but can February/March 2023 | Uncrewed Systems Technology In conversation | Jarno Puff In the early days of the Emergency Flight Department, conventional helicopter UAVs were used for local situational awareness, but multi-copters have replaced them (Courtesy of Jarno Puff)