Energy Efficiency Analysis of Charging Pads-powered UAV-enabled Wireless Networks

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the energy efficiency of UAV-enabled wireless networks with charging pads, introducing a new model and analysis tools to compare deployment strategies and optimize system parameters for better performance.

Contribution

It presents a novel system model with cluster pairs, derives new distance distributions using stochastic geometry, and compares deployment strategies to optimize energy efficiency.

Findings

One UAV per cluster pair generally yields higher energy efficiency.

An optimal cluster pair density exists to maximize energy efficiency.

Deployment strategy effectiveness depends on system parameters.

Abstract

This paper analyzes the energy efficiency of a novel system model where unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used to provide coverage for user hotspots (user clusters) and are deployed on charging pads to enhance the flight time. We introduce a new notion of "cluster pairs" to capture the dynamic nature of the users' spatial distribution in order to exploit one of the top advantages of UAVs, which is the mobility and relocation flexibility. Using tools from stochastic geometry, we first derive a new distance distribution that is vital for energy efficiency analysis. Next, we compute the coverage probability under two deployment strategies: (i) one UAV per cluster pair, and (ii) one UAV per cluster. Finally, we compute the energy efficiency for both strategies. Our numerical results reveal which of the two strategies is better for different system parameters. Our work investigates some new aspects of the UAV-enabled communication system such as the dynamic density of users and the advantages or disadvantages of one- or two-UAV deployment strategies per cluster pair. By considering the relationships between the densities of user cluster pairs and the charging pads, it is shown that an optimal cluster pair density exists to maximize energy efficiency.