Measurement-Based Modeling and Analysis of UAV Air-Ground Channels at 1 and 4 GHz

TL;DR

This paper presents measurement-based analysis of UAV air-ground channels at 1 and 4 GHz, deriving models for path loss, shadow fading, and fast fading to improve UAV communication system design.

Contribution

It provides new empirical data and models for UAV air-ground channels at multiple frequencies, including altitude-dependent path loss and fading characteristics.

Findings

Altitude affects path loss significantly.

Shadow fading exhibits specific statistical properties.

Fast fading behavior is characterized for UAV channels.

Abstract

In the design of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) wireless communications, a better understanding of propagation characteristics and an accurate channel model are required. Measurements and comprehensive analysis for the UAV-based air-ground (AG) propagation channel in the vertical dimension are presented in this letter. Based on the measurement data at 1 and 4 GHz, the large-scale and small-scale channel parameters are extracted in the line-of-sight (LOS) and nonLOS case, respectively. The altitude-dependent path loss model is proposed herein. Furthermore, shadow fading and fast fading are statistically analyzed for comprehensively describing the fading behavior. Our results will be useful in the modeling of AG channels and the performance analysis for UAV-enabled wireless communication systems.