3D Urban UAV Relay Placement: Linear Complexity Algorithm and Analysis

Optimal unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) placement in a 3-dimensional (3D) space to build a connection between a base station (BS) and a ground user is studied herein. A key challenge is to avoid signal propagation blockage due to obstacles. Much prior work uses probabilistic terrain models with model...

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Published in:	IEEE transactions on wireless communications Vol. 20; no. 8; pp. 5243 - 5257
Main Authors:	Chen, Junting, Mitra, Urbashi, Gesbert, David
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	New York IEEE 01.08.2021 The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Subjects:	Algorithms Area Autonomous aerial vehicles Complexity theory Computer Aided Engineering Computer Science Diameters Line of sight Optimization Performance gain Placement position optimization Probabilistic logic Probabilistic models radio map relay networks Terrain models Three-dimensional displays Topology trajectory planning Two-dimensional displays Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Unmanned aerial vehicles Wireless communication position optimization relay networks Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) radio map Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) relay networks radio map trajectory planning position optimization trajectory planning
ISSN:	1536-1276, 1558-2248
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Abstract	Optimal unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) placement in a 3-dimensional (3D) space to build a connection between a base station (BS) and a ground user is studied herein. A key challenge is to avoid signal propagation blockage due to obstacles. Much prior work uses probabilistic terrain models with model parameters learned from the statistics over a large area, and therefore, the optimization for a specific user in a small local area is poor. In contrast, this paper seeks the optimal UAV position over actual and fine-grained terrain, and develops efficient UAV positioning strategy adaptive to the degree of location-dependent line-of-sight (LOS) condition measured on the fly. It is proven that the globally optimal UAV position in 3D can be determined from the proposed search trajectory which has merely linear length in the diameter of the target area. Therefore, the proposed strategy can be practically implemented. Numerical experiments are performed over a real-world urban topology and demonstrate superior performance gain over existing strategies based on probabilistic models.
AbstractList	Optimal unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) placement in a 3-dimensional (3D) space to build a connection between a base station (BS) and a ground user is studied herein. A key challenge is to avoid signal propagation blockage due to obstacles. Much prior work uses probabilistic terrain models with model parameters learned from the statistics over a large area, and therefore, the optimization for a specific user in a small local area is poor. In contrast, this paper seeks the optimal UAV position over actual and fine-grained terrain, and develops efficient UAV positioning strategy adaptive to the degree of location-dependent line-of-sight (LOS) condition measured on the fly. It is proven that the globally optimal UAV position in 3D can be determined from the proposed search trajectory which has merely linear length in the diameter of the target area. Therefore, the proposed strategy can be practically implemented. Numerical experiments are performed over a real-world urban topology and demonstrate superior performance gain over existing strategies based on probabilistic models.
Author	Gesbert, David Mitra, Urbashi Chen, Junting
Author_xml	– sequence: 1 givenname: Junting orcidid: 0000-0003-3056-9030 surname: Chen fullname: Chen, Junting email: juntingc@cuhk.edu.cn organization: Future Network of Intelligence Institute (FNii) and the School of Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China – sequence: 2 givenname: Urbashi orcidid: 0000-0002-8896-1177 surname: Mitra fullname: Mitra, Urbashi email: ubli@usc.edu organization: Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA – sequence: 3 givenname: David surname: Gesbert fullname: Gesbert, David email: gesbert@eurecom.fr organization: Department of Communication Systems, EURECOM, Sophia-Antipolis, France
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SubjectTerms	Algorithms Area Autonomous aerial vehicles Complexity theory Computer Aided Engineering Computer Science Diameters Line of sight Optimization Performance gain Placement position optimization Probabilistic logic Probabilistic models radio map relay networks Terrain models Three-dimensional displays Topology trajectory planning Two-dimensional displays Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Unmanned aerial vehicles Wireless communication
Title	3D Urban UAV Relay Placement: Linear Complexity Algorithm and Analysis
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