Optimal No-Fly Zone Design for the Coexistence of Drone and Satellite Networks

TL;DR

This paper presents a mathematical approach to optimally design no-fly zones that enable drones and satellite systems to coexist, minimizing restricted airspace while maintaining protection.

Contribution

It formulates the NFZ design as a variational problem and derives an optimal solution based on antenna patterns and drone distribution, a novel application of calculus of variations.

Findings

Optimal NFZ reduces airspace restrictions compared to baseline methods

The design adapts to antenna gain and drone density patterns

Numerical results confirm improved efficiency of the proposed method

Abstract

Constructing a no-fly zone (NFZ) is a straightforward and effective way to facilitate the coexistence of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and existing systems (typically satellite systems). However, there has been little work on understanding the optimal design of such NFZs. In the absence of this design, one invariably ends up overestimating this region, hence significantly limiting the allowed airspace for the drones. To optimize the volume of the NFZ, we formulate this task as a variational problem and utilize the calculus of variations to rigorously obtain the NFZ as a function of the antenna pattern of victim receivers and the spatial distribution of drones. This approach parallels the matched filter design in the sense that the NFZ extends in directions where the antenna gain and/or the density of drones is high. Numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of our optimal design compared to the known baselines in reducing the volume of the NFZ without compromising the protective performance.