LTE and 5G
Wide coverage and workable latency wherever there is a network, with a dependency on someone else's infrastructure.
Connectivity & Encryption
Every link has a trade-off
There is no best way to talk to an aircraft — only the right one for your range, latency, bandwidth and spectrum situation. What should never vary is whether the link is protected.
Link options
How the aircraft reaches you
Range, latency, bandwidth, cost and spectrum licensing pull in different directions.
Wi-Fi
High bandwidth at short range with no per-flight cost — the natural choice for site-local and indoor operations.
Proprietary RF and SDR
Long range and independence from public networks, at the price of spectrum licensing and considerably more engineering.
Satellite
Coverage where nothing else reaches, traded against latency, bandwidth and cost per megabyte.
Ethernet and tether
The most reliable link there is, for persistent-stare operations where the aircraft does not need to travel.
More than one
Serious operations rarely rely on a single path — the interesting design question is what happens when the primary link degrades.
Encryption
Protection appropriate to each layer
Different links, different mechanisms
Encryption is not one setting. Command, telemetry and video each have their own established protections, and a serious deployment uses all of them.- Transport securityTLS and mutual TLS for control and data channels, so both ends prove who they are rather than only the server.
- Tunnelled linksModern VPN tunnelling for deployments that need the whole path inside a private network boundary.
- Signed MAVLink and secure videoMessage signing on the command link, and encrypted real-time transport for the video path.
Protection per layer
End to end
Device, cloud, viewer
A link is only as protected as its weakest segment. The path from the aircraft to the operator normally crosses at least three: the air link, the connection into the platform, and the delivery to whoever is watching in a browser. Securing one and assuming the rest is the most common gap we see.
Data residency is part of the same question. Where the traffic terminates decides which jurisdiction it sits in, which is why deployment location is treated as a security decision rather than an operational convenience.
Review your link architecture
Tell us how your aircraft connect today and we will walk through the exposure with you.