Ericsson says ordinary 5G towers can now spot and track drones

ISAC stands for Integrated Sensing and Communication. In plain words, it is a mobile network that does two jobs with the same radio waves: carry your data and sense what is around it.

Think of a bat. It sends out a sound and listens for the echo. A network that senses does something similar with radio waves instead of sound.

The system uses sensing-capable 5G radios, edge computing, AI and signal processing. Edge computing just means the number crunching happens close to the towers, not in a far away data center.

When a radio signal hits a flying object, some of it bounces back. The system studies those reflections to tell that something is there and where it is going.

Ericsson says it works as a multi-static system. That means the sending and the receiving are spread across several mobile network sites that sit far apart.

Why does that help? Because one site sees a drone from one side only. Several sites see it from many angles at once.

• Detection confidence: more angles mean fewer false alarms.
• Position: the system works out where the object is in three dimensions.
• Tracking: it keeps following the object as it moves across the coverage area.

The drone does not need to be connected to the network. It also does not need to broadcast its location. That matters because the drones that worry security teams are often the ones that stay quiet.

Small, cheap drones are now used for unlawful surveillance, organized crime, sabotage and warfare, Ericsson says. They fly low and they are small, so they are hard to see.

Dedicated sensors can find them. But putting one at every place you want to protect needs a lot of new equipment, and that is hard to scale over a big area.

In real life Picture a port, a power plant and a stadium in the same region. Instead of buying separate sensors for all three, the operator could lean on towers that are already standing nearby.

Ericsson says it ran validated tests over the past months. In them, the system reliably detected and tracked micro drones at kilometer-scale distances, with precise 3D positioning.

The tests covered different operating conditions, system setups and drone flight patterns. Ericsson adds a fair warning: real performance depends on the drone itself, its flight path, the terrain, the sensing geometry and the network setup.

There were also live 5G demonstrations in three places:

• Arlington, Texas: with AT&T, outside AT&T Stadium during a major global sporting event. Multiple drones flew at 300 to 400 feet. The system found them, located them and tracked their movement, including each drone's location, speed and height.
• Helsinki, Finland: with the public safety network operator Erillisverkot. Several 5G sites detected and tracked drones, which showed how sensing can support public safety and counter-drone work.
• Poland: with the mobile operator Play and the technology company Asseco. The setup paired Ericsson's radio sensing with Asseco's PUSZCZYK acoustic detection system, which listens for drones, to pin down low-flying ones more accurately.

By the numbers: in Texas the drones flew at 300 to 400 feet, which is the low airspace where small drones tend to hide.

No, and Ericsson says so itself. The company describes the system as a layer that complements radar and other sensors.

Detection data can be shared through standard interfaces with authorized outside systems, such as security and command and control platforms. Combined with data from other sensors, it gives a fuller picture of what is happening overhead.

The big picture: Ericsson wants towers to be one more pair of eyes in a team, not the whole team. Freddie Sodergren, Ericsson's Global Head of Mission Critical Networks and Defense, said low-flying drones create a coverage gap that no single sensor can address.

Ericsson lists four groups of possible users:

• Defense and public safety: watching borders, coastlines and strategic sites.
• Critical infrastructure: guarding ports, power plants and other vital places.
• Transport and industry: supporting safer work on roads, rail and industrial sites.
• Low-altitude economy: managing drone traffic, watching city airspace, and building digital twins, which are computer copies of a place, for smart city planning.

The AT&T and Ericsson team also pointed to the next major global sporting event in Los Angeles in 2028 as a place where this kind of work could matter.

AT&T's Network CTO Yigal Elbaz said the work with Ericsson explores how wireless networks can add sensing to connectivity in ways that could support safer operations and smarter venues.

Dyon Agnew, who heads the AT&T customer unit at Ericsson Americas, called the Texas demo "a product roadmap in action". He said the idea is to use advanced 5G today and grow those abilities over time as the path to 6G becomes clearer.

Why it matters: AT&T and Ericsson also say that running sensing on radio signals the network already uses brings a cost advantage for nationwide coverage. Cost is the main reason a tower-based approach is interesting at all.

No. Sensing has become a common idea in the telecom world. Mobile network sensing is already part of early 6G studies, and Ericsson is one of several network makers that have named sensing as an important part of 6G in their white papers.

Ericsson's analyst quote in the announcement points the same way. Joe Madden of Mobile Experts said mobile network sensing can perform far better than many expect, and that building on existing sites could deliver wide-area drone detection faster and more cheaply than putting up new dedicated sensors.

Sensing is expected to be a part of 6G, the next generation of mobile networks. AT&T said the Texas demo showed that some things people think of as 6G can start to appear now through software, advanced radios and 5G.

Ericsson says the first version is sensing only. The communication part of the system will be added as the technology moves toward 6G.

The rollout comes in phases. Selected small-scale, sensing-only commercial pilots with chosen customers are expected to begin in 2027. Wider deployments are expected to follow in 2028.

For now, this is a technology that has passed tests and live demos. It is not a product you can buy off the shelf today.

Ericsson says its system can use towers, backhaul and spectrum that are already in place to track drones that never connect to the network. Backhaul is the link that carries a tower's traffic to the rest of the network, and spectrum is the set of radio frequencies the network is licensed to use.

• Safer big events: stadiums and other busy venues could get better warning about low-flying drones.
• No new gadgets for you: the sensing lives in the network, so there is nothing to install on your phone.
• Not yet: pilots start in 2027, so do not expect it at your local tower soon.
• Your drone: hobby drones that fly in allowed airspace are not what this is aimed at, but a system like this could see them too.