Coexistence of Terrestrial and Aerial Users in Cellular Networks

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the coverage probability for aerial and ground users in cellular networks, highlighting how altitude and antenna parameters influence interference and proposing optimization strategies for coexistence.

Contribution

It provides an exact mathematical model of coverage probability considering drone altitude, base station height, and antenna patterns, aiding network design for aerial user integration.

Findings

Aerial users' favorable propagation increases interference vulnerability.

Optimizing drone altitude and base station parameters improves coexistence.

Lowering base station height and increasing antenna tilt benefits both user types.

Abstract

Enabling the integration of aerial mobile users into existing cellular networks would make possible a number of promising applications. However, current cellular networks have not been designed to serve aerial users, and hence an exploration of design parameters is required in order to allow network providers to modify their current infrastructure. As a first step in this direction, this paper provides an in-depth analysis of the coverage probability of the downlink of a cellular network that serves both aerial and ground users. We present an exact mathematical characterization of the coverage probability, which includes the effect of base stations (BSs) height, antenna pattern and drone altitude for various type of urban environments. Interestingly, our results show that the favorable propagation conditions that aerial users enjoys due to its altitude is also their strongest limiting factor, as it leaves them vulnerable to interference. This negative effect can be substantially reduced by optimizing the flying altitude, the base station height and antenna down-tilt. Moreover, lowering the base station height and increasing down-tilt angle are in general beneficial for both terrestrial and aerial users, pointing out a possible path to enable their coexistence.