On the Optimal Beamwidth of UAV-Assisted Networks Operating at Millimeter Waves

TL;DR

This paper investigates the optimal sector beamwidth for UAV-assisted millimeter-wave networks, balancing coverage and energy efficiency, and provides guidelines for rural deployment based on user density and UAV height.

Contribution

It formulates an optimization framework to determine the optimal beamwidth considering user density, UAV height, and power constraints, a novel approach for UAV mm-wave network design.

Findings

Optimal beamwidth increases with decreasing user density.

UAV height influences the optimal beamwidth.

Guidelines for rural mm-wave UAV deployment are provided.

Abstract

The millimeter-wave (mm-wave) bands enable very large antenna arrays that can generate narrow beams for beamforming and spatial multiplexing. However, directionality introduces beam misalignment and leads to reduced energy efficiency. Thus, employing the narrowest possible beam in a cell may not necessarily imply maximum coverage. The objective of this work is to determine the optimal sector beamwidth for a cellular architecture served by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) acting as a base station (BS). The users in a cell are assumed to be distributed according to a Poisson Point Process (PPP) with a given user density. We consider hybrid beamforming at the UAV, such that multiple concurrent beams serve all the sectors simultaneously. An optimization problem is formulated to maximize the sum rate over a given area while limiting the total power available to each sector. We observe that, for a given transmit power, the optimal sector beamwidth increases as the user density in a cell decreases, and varies based on the height of the UAV. Thus, we provide guidelines towards the optimal beamforming configurations for users in rural areas.