AURA Advances Communication Network for AAM

Originally published in Aviation Week, 12/12/2022, by Graham Warwick

AURAʼs network of 55 ground stations have been deployed on broadband communication towers across the U.S.

Armed with $75 million in new funding, AURA Network Systems is preparing for commercial launch of its command-and-control service for remotely piloted aircraft and looking ahead to expanding into the advanced air mobility (AAM) market.

McLean, Virginia-based AURA is building a nationwide safety-critical network for command-and-control (C2) communications with uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) operating beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) in national airspace.

The proprietary network operates in the 450-MHz spectrum band and meets RTCA DO-377 performance standards for UAS control and non- payload communications (CNPC), providing C2 and telemetry data and air traffic control (ATC) voice service.

Closed in November and led by Fortress Investment Group, the $75 million round took the total raised by AURA since its founding in 2019 to more than $113 million.

“AURA was founded to provide command-and-control services to enable UAS to fly beyond visual-line-of-sight in controlled airspace,” says CEO Bill Tolpegin. “We have a version 1 of network in place that covers the continental U.S., Puerto Rico, Hawaii and also American Samoa and Guam.”

The network is designed to meet DO-377 standards for latency, jitter, availability, reliability and voice communications. “That means youʼre building an aviation-grade network,” Tolpegin says. “And weʼre building a deterministic network, which means we will guarantee connection at a specific point in time, unlike a cellular network.”

In addition to telemetry and drone “safety of life” data, the network will carry ATC voice. “Voice is important for situational awareness, so we are doing a voice relay system,” he says. “

At the end of 2021, AURA entered into a four-year cooperative research and development agreement with the FAA to help determine performance standards for integrating ATC voice communications into CNPC to support UAS operations within the national airspace system. “Because this is so important to safety in national airspace, I think thatʼs a big thing,” Tolpegin says.

Even with voice, the service is low-bandwidth. “You donʼt need a lot of bandwidth for CNPC, or for voice, and we are not transmitting video. We stay away from the payload. If an operator wants video, they have to use some other method to get it off the platform,” he says.

Using licensed and underutilized aviation-designated 450-MHz spectrum originally intended for general-aviation air-to-ground phone systems, AURA completed building out its initial network in late 2020. In early 2021, the company received its waiver from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to expand use of the spectrum from crewed aviation to include uncrewed aviation.

Use of the communication service requires an AURA-developed radio and antenna on the aircraft. The radio is in pre-commercial production. “We are testing an early version of our commercial radio with customers. We will not scale production until the end of 2023,” Tolpegin says.

The first version of the radio is intended for use in larger uncrewed aircraft. “Weʼre going from big to small as aircraft flying in controlled airspace are usually a pretty decent size. Could we down the road do a version  for smaller aircraft? Absolutely,” he says.

Longer term, AURA sees its communications service expanding into the advanced air mobility market. “The good news is that weʼre essentially an aviation platform. So what we provide one segment will work with other segments,” Tolpegin says.

“There could be add-ons, like multiple voice channels, but it will be the same,” he says. “The real question for us is when, over time, does capacity become an issue with a million UAS flying around? If thatʼs the case, thatʼs a good problem to have. And we have 10-15 years to address that.”