AERPAW: Aerial Android-based 4G measurements for semi circle trajectories around a private base station
Data files
Sep 05, 2025 version files 6.67 MB
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aerpaw_pawprints_semicircles.zip
6.66 MB
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README.md
4.67 KB
Abstract
A UAV, carrying an Android phone, was flown on the Lake Wheeler AERPAW testbed, in semi-circles around a private Ericsson base station. The Android phone logged 4G cellular KPIs (RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, cell association) at one-second intervals, which was synchronized with UAV position information (latitude, longitude, altitude). This dataset is shared in .csv format, along with .kml files of the 4G cellular KPIs, for visualization in Google Earth. The dataset illustrates the impact of RSRP, RSRQ, and direction of flight on cell association.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.gmsbcc30x
Description of the data and file structure
Measurement Environment:
This dataset (aerpaw_pawprints_semicircles.zip) was collected by flying a UAV in segments of semi-circles, at an altitude of 50 m, around a private Ericsson base station in the AERPAW Lake Wheeler test bed site. The base station consisted of two sectors, with physical cell ID (PCI) 1 and 2, covering the south-west and north-west regions, respectively. The flight time was 20 min 20 sec, and the UAV flew at a speed of 5 m/s. The height of the base station antenna is 12 m, and the base station is located at latitude and longitude coordinates of (35.727480, -78.695920). More information about the base station and the cellular network can be found in the AERPAW User Manual.
Dataset Content:
The dataset is shared in the form of a zip file, containing the following folders:
- Logs: Contains the pawprints_4G.csv file with the KPIs
- KMLs: Contains representative KML files, indicating variation with RSRP, RSRQ, with location, as well as
- Results: Contains .png images of the representative KMLs.
KPI Logs*:*
The Logs folder within the dataset contains timestamped 4G cellular KPIs in "pawprints_4G.csv". KPIs were logged at intervals of 1 second. KPIs of each sector, identified by its PCI, are logged in separate rows.
A column, named "is_connected", indicates if the UAV was connected to the corresponding PCI at each row. Users of the dataset can filter using this row to analyze KPIs only for the connected cell. Users can filter using the "PCI" column to analyze a specific cell sector.
Each row contains the following LTE KPIs:
- Received Signal Reference Power (RSRP):
- Column name = rsrp. Units = dBm.
- Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI):
- Column name = rssi. Units = dBm.
- Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ):
- Column name = rsrq. Units = dB.
- Timing advance (TA):
- Column name = ta. No units.
- An instruction sent from base stations to cellular users, providing them with a specific timing offset, to ensure that the uplink signals arrive in time at the base station. Adjusted in relation to the distance of the user from the base station.
- Physical cell identity (PCI):
- Column name = pci. No units.
- Indicates the physical layer cell identity of the cell. There are two cells in this experiment, one with PCI 1 and the other with PCI 2.
- "Connected" flag:
- Column name = is_connected. Units = 1 or 0.
- An integer flag, which indicates if the UAV was connected to the corresponding PCI at the corresponding timestamp. 1 indicates connected. 0 indicates not connected. Users can filter on this field to only choose log rows corresponding to the connected PCI, e.g., to analyze the distribution of the connected RSRP.
- UAV latitude, as reported by the onboard autopilot:
- Units = degrees. Column name = latitude
- UAV longitude, as reported by the onboard autopilot:
- Units = degrees. Column name = longitude
- UAV altitude above ground, as reported by the on-board autopilot:
- Units = meters. Column name = altitude
- Elevation angle of the UAV with respect to the base station antenna:
- Units = degrees. Column name = bs_elevation
- Bearing angle with respect to North, of the line joining the base station antenna to the UAV:
- Units = degrees. Column name = bs_bearing
- Distance of the UAV from the base station:
- Column_name = bs_distance. Units = meters
- Timestamp of the measurement row:
- Column name = timestamp. Units = milliseconds
- Unix timestamp of the measurement in milliseconds elapsed since the Unix epoch (Jan 1, 1970).
- Mobile Country Code (MCC):
- Constant 1 throughout the logs. No units.
- Mobile Network Code (MNC):
- Constant 10 throughout the logs. No units.
- Tracking area code (TAC):
- Constant 1 throughout the log. No units.
KMLs:
KML files for RSRP, RSRQ, and PCI are included for the connected sector. It is also possible to generate KMLs of KPIs per cell sector.
Representative Results:
PNG files showing the variation in RSRP, RSRQ, and cell association with UAV location are included in the ./Results folder.
Code/software
The KMLs can be opened with Google Earth.
The *.*csv log files can be analyzed using MATLAB or the Python pandas library.