  The cellular-connected drone market is one of the most promising markets of
5G. However, it still accounts for a small share of overall telecommunication
market, and it is unlikely to increase significantly for the foreseeable
future. Deploying dedicated network with up-tilted antennas can be an option,
but the monetary cost of dedicated network directly impacts the acceptance of
mobile operators. Therefore, cost-efficient aerial coverage solutions must be
developed. Reusing network for terrestrial coverage is a cost-efficient
approach for aerial coverage, but several critical challenges caused by antenna
sidelobe should be solved. In this paper, a novel method for aerial coverage is
proposed. By tweaking the measurement report handling mechanism, signals from
sidelobes reported by drones above the predefined height can be identified and
ignored. Simulation results show that the conventional cellular network with
the proposed method can provide wide and continuous aerial coverage with
satisfactory quality.
