Connectivity and Blockage Effects in Millimeter-Wave Air-To-Everything Networks

TL;DR

This paper develops an analytical framework using stochastic geometry to evaluate and optimize the connectivity of millimeter-wave air-to-everything networks considering building blockage effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel model for buildings as line segments and derives bounds on connectivity probability, providing deployment guidelines for mmWave A2X networks.

Findings

Optimal altitude minimizes blockage effects.

Connectivity probability depends on building and user densities.

Guidelines for practical mmWave A2X network deployment.

Abstract

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) offers high data rate and bandwidth for air-to-everything (A2X) communications including air-to-air, air-to-ground, and air-to-tower. MmWave communication in the A2X network is sensitive to buildings blockage effects. In this paper, we propose an analytical framework to define and characterise the connectivity for an aerial access point (AAP) by jointly using stochastic geometry and random shape theory. The buildings are modelled as a Boolean line-segment process with fixed height. The blocking area for an arbitrary building is derived and minimized by optimizing the altitude of AAP. A lower bound on the connectivity probability is derived as a function of the altitude of AAP and different parameters of users and buildings including their densities, sizes, and heights. Our study yields guidelines on practical mmWave A2X networks deployment.