eVTOL Communications and Networking in UAM: Requirements, Key Enablers, and Challenges

Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft have attracted great attention during the last years as the long-awaited enabler of urban air mobility (UAM), allowing a more sustainable method of transportation and accelerating the development of smart cities. The operation of eVTOLs over urban areas introduces safety hazards for passengers, pedestrians, and buildings, which prioritises safety considerations. Ensuring the safe operation of eVTOLs requires studying their communication, networking, and computing requirements. In this article, we showcase eVTOL requirements in UAM in terms of coverage, data rate, latency, spectrum efficiency, networking, and computing. Then, we identify potential key technological enablers to address these requirements and their challenges. Finally, we conduct a comparative case study between the terrestrial and aerial communication infrastructures to serve eVTOLs in UAM.