Real-Time Object Detection and Rural Connectivity with 5G-Enabled Edge Solutions

Access to advanced technologies like 5G and edge computing remains limited in rural areas, delaying innovation in agriculture and emergency services, to name a few. The European XGain project addresses this gap through real-world use cases. This paper presents a demonstrator led by i2CAT Foundation, evaluating a rural drone operations center in Mora la Nova, Catalonia. As a proof of concept, a service for locating lost individuals using drones was implemented, integrating a private 5G network, edge computing, and an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Multi-Object Tracking Camera (MOTCAM). Key Performance Indicators, including end-to-end latency, throughput, resource usage, and power consumption, were measured. The system achieved an average processing delay of 366 ms, improving upon the target of 500 ms, and demonstrated how 5G-enabled drones can provide valuable, real-time services to rural communities.