Performance Analysis of Micro Unmanned Airborne Communication Relays for Cellular Networks

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the use of small unmanned aerial vehicles as wireless relays to improve cellular network coverage and performance through field tests and large-scale simulations.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive analysis combining field experiments and large-scale network modeling of SUAV-based relays for cellular networks.

Findings

Throughput improvements in poor coverage zones

Effective in urban and rural environments

Validated with stochastic geometry and multi-cell simulations

Abstract

This paper analyses the potential of utilising small unmanned-aerial-vehicles (SUAV) as wireless relays for assisting cellular network performance. Whilst high altitude wireless relays have been investigated over the past 2 decades, the new class of low cost SUAVs offers new possibilities for addressing local traffic imbalances and providing emergency coverage.We present field-test results from an SUAV test-bed in both urban and rural environments. The results show that trough-to-peak throughput improvements can be achieved for users in poor coverage zones. Furthermore, the paper reinforces the experimental study with large-scale network analysis using both stochastic geometry and multi-cell simulation results.