Coverage Analysis of Cellular-Connected UAV Communications with 3GPP Antenna and Channel Models

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the coverage probability of cellular-connected UAVs using 3GPP antenna and channel models, revealing how altitude and antenna configurations affect connectivity for aerial and ground users.

Contribution

It provides a realistic coverage probability analysis for UAV communications considering 3GPP models, including antenna adjustments and user height impacts.

Findings

High-altitude users' coverage less sensitive to antenna tilt.

Certain UAV heights can achieve comparable or better coverage than ground users.

Antenna number and frequency significantly influence coverage probabilities.

Abstract

For reliable and efficient communications of aerial platforms, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the cellular network is envisioned to provide connectivity for the aerial and ground user equipment (GUE) simultaneously, which brings challenges to the existing pattern of the base station (BS) tailored for ground-level services. Thus, we focus on the coverage probability analysis to investigate the coexistence of aerial and terrestrial users, by employing realistic antenna and channel models reported in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The homogeneous Poisson point process (PPP) is used to describe the BS distribution, and the BS antenna is adjustable in the down-tilted angle and the number of the antenna array. Meantime, omnidirectional antennas are used for cellular users. We first derive the approximation of coverage probability and then conduct numerous simulations to evaluate the impacts of antenna numbers, down-tilted angles, carrier frequencies, and user heights. One of the essential findings indicates that the coverage probabilities of high-altitude users become less sensitive to the down-tilted angle. Moreover, we found that the aerial user equipment (AUE) in a certain range of heights can achieve the same or better coverage probability than that of GUE, which provides an insight into the effective deployment of cellular-connected aerial communications.