UAV Enabled Wireless Communications: Applications,

Challenges and Analytical Frameworks for Optimization

PAYAL DAS (116EC0254)
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
National Institute of Technology ,Rourkela

Abstract—UAVs have emerged as promising solutions for
future wireless communication with a high QoS and are
expected to revolutionize cellular communication.
Wireless communication with unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs) is a rapidly growing technology for future
communication. Wireless communication systems that
include unmanned aerial vehicles promise to provide cost-
effective wireless connectivity for devices without
infrastructure coverage. Due to their inherent attributes
such as mobility, flexibility, and adaptive altitude, UAVs
have several potential applications in wireless systems
and networks. The relevance of this technology is soaring
due to its impeccable features. In this poster the potential
benefits, applications and challenges faced by using
unmanned aerial vehicles in wireless communication are
presented.
I. INTRODUCTION
(5G) wireless networks. On the one hand, UAVs can be
connected to cellular networks as new types of user
equipment, therefore generating significant revenues for the
operators that can guarantee their stringent service
requirements. On the other hand, UAVs offer the
unprecedented opportunity to realize UAV-mounted flying
base stations that can dynamically reposition themselves to
boost coverage, spectral efficiency, and user quality of
experience.
II. CLASSIFICATION OF UAVS
Naturally, depending on the application and goals, one
needs to use an appropriate type of UAV that can meet various
requirements imposed by the desired quality-of-service
(QoS), the nature of the environment, security. In general,
UAVs can be categorized, based on their altitudes, into high
altitude platforms (HAPs) and low altitude platform (LAPs).
UAVs can also be categorized, based on type, into fixed wing
and rotary-wing UAVs.

The unprecedented recent advances in drone technology III. WIDE RANGING APPLICATIONS OF UAVS
make it possible to widely deploy UAVs, such as drones,
small aircrafts, balloons, and airships for wireless
communication purposes. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs),
commonly known as drones, have been considered the subject
of research for the past few year due to their flexibility, and
broad range of application domains and low cost.

Figure 1: UAV Network Model

From an industry perspective, key real-world example of
recent projects that employ drones for wireless connectivity Figure 2: Drone Applications
includes Google’s Loon project. Moreover, Qualcomm and
AT&T are planning to deploy UAVs for enabling wide-scale
wireless communications in the upcoming fifth generation
UAVs have a myriad of applications. The applications are
drawn from a variety of scenarios,that include imminent use
cases. Some of the primary and trending applications have
been discussed below.
A. UAV Aerial Base Station in 5G and beyond
By exploiting the unique features of UAVs as well
as establishing LOS communication, we can use
these boost the performance of terrestrial networks
in terms of coverage and capacity
B. UAVs as Flying Base Stations for Public Safety
Scenarios
During natural calamities or unexpected
catastrophic events, the ground networks may get
completely damaged or even destroyed. In such
scenarios, there is a vital need for public safety
communications between first responders and
victims for search and rescue operations. This is
where UAVs can be of great help.
C. UAVs for IoT Communication
Realizing the much coveted applications of the IoT
such as smart cities infrastructure management,
healthcare, transportation, and energy management
requires effective wireless connectivity among a
massive number of IoT devices that must reliably
deliver their data. UAVs can act as an effective
solution here.
IV. CHALLENGES AND RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
Below is an overview of all the challenges associated with
various research directions for practical deployment of
UAVs.
Figure 3: Mathematical tools for designing UAV
communication systems
A. Air-to-Ground Channel Modelling
Wireless signal propagation is affected by the
medium between the transmitter and the receiver.
The air-to-ground (A2G) channel characteristics
can determine the performance of UAV-based
wireless communications in terms of coverage and
capacity.
B. Trajectory Optimization
Optimal path planning for UAVs is another
important challenge in UAVbased communication
systems. In particular, optimizing the trajectory of
UAVs is crucial while using them for smart cities,
drone-UE, and caching scenarios. There are
different techniques to optimally plan the trajectory
C. Performance Analysis
In particular, the performance of the UAV systems
must analysed in terms of the key QoS metrics
such as coverage probability, throughput, delay, or
reliability (e.g., for cellular-connected drones).
D. Resource Management and Energy Efficiency
While resource management is a major challenge
for cellular networks in key scenarios such as IoT,
public safety, and UAV-assisted cellular wireless
networks, energy consumption of an UAV depends
on various factors which can be regulated.
V. CONCLUSION
In this poster, we have done a comprehensive and detailed
study of the numerous applications of UAVs in wireless
communications. We also studied the various challenges and
open problems associated with the deployment of UAVs in
the aforementioned applications .Moreover, we discussed
about the different optimization tools and analytical
frameworks that may be used to find optimized solutions for
UAV meeting challenges. Overall, we did an in-depth study
of UAV-based wireless networks, their utilities, their salient
features and prospective deployment options.
VI. REFERENCES
[1] M.Mozaffari, W.Saad, M.Bennis, Y.-H.Nam and
M.Debbah ”A Tutorial on UAVs for Wireless Networks:
Applications, Challenges and Open Problems,” IEEE
Communications Surveys and Tutorials
[2] M. Mozaffari, W. Saad, M. Bennis, and M. Debbah,
“Wireless communication using unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs): Optimal transport theory for hover
time optimization,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless
Communications, vol. 16, no. 12, pp. 8052–8066, Dec.
2017
[3] M. Mozaffari, W. Saad, M. Bennis, and M. Debbah,
“Optimal Trasnport Theory for cell association in UAV-
enabled cellular networks”, IEEE Communications
Letters 21 (9), 2053-2056