Online search for UAV relay placement for free-space optical communication under shadowing

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) relaying is promising to overcome the challenge of signal blockage in free-space optical (FSO) communications for users in dense urban area. Existing works on UAV relay placement are mostly based on simplified line-of-sight (LOS) channel models or probabilistic channel...

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Main Authors: Yuanshuai Zheng, Yinjun Wang, Junting Chen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Tsinghua University Press 2023-03-01
Series:Intelligent and Converged Networks
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.23919/ICN.2023.0003
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author Yuanshuai Zheng
Yinjun Wang
Junting Chen
author_facet Yuanshuai Zheng
Yinjun Wang
Junting Chen
author_sort Yuanshuai Zheng
collection DOAJ
description Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) relaying is promising to overcome the challenge of signal blockage in free-space optical (FSO) communications for users in dense urban area. Existing works on UAV relay placement are mostly based on simplified line-of-sight (LOS) channel models or probabilistic channel models, and thus fail to capture the actual LOS status of the optical communication link. By contrast, this paper studies three-dimensional (3D) online placement for a UAV to construct relay links to two ground users in deep shadow with LOS guarantees. By analyzing the properties of the UAV relay placement problem, it is found that searching on a plane that approximates the equipotential surface can achieve a good performance and complexity trade-off for a good placement of the UAV relay in 3D. Based on these insights, a two-stage online search algorithm on an equipotential plane (TOSEP) is developed for a special case where the equipotential surface turns out to be an equipotential plane. For the general case, a strategy called gradient projected online search algorithm on an approximated equipotential plane (GOSAEP) is developed, which approximates the equipotential surface with a perpendicular plane using the gradient projection method. Numerical experiments are conducted over a real-world city topology, and it is shown that the GOSAEP achieves over 95% of the performance of the exhaustive 3D search scheme within a 300-m search length.
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spelling doaj.art-9ef29e40130546238c5d58efe23990e42023-06-19T04:00:36ZengTsinghua University PressIntelligent and Converged Networks2708-62402023-03-0141284010.23919/ICN.2023.0003Online search for UAV relay placement for free-space optical communication under shadowingYuanshuai Zheng0Yinjun Wang1Junting Chen2School of Science and Engineering and the Future Network of Intelligence Institute (FNii), The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518172, ChinaSchool of Science and Engineering and the Future Network of Intelligence Institute (FNii), The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518172, ChinaSchool of Science and Engineering and the Future Network of Intelligence Institute (FNii), The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518172, ChinaUnmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) relaying is promising to overcome the challenge of signal blockage in free-space optical (FSO) communications for users in dense urban area. Existing works on UAV relay placement are mostly based on simplified line-of-sight (LOS) channel models or probabilistic channel models, and thus fail to capture the actual LOS status of the optical communication link. By contrast, this paper studies three-dimensional (3D) online placement for a UAV to construct relay links to two ground users in deep shadow with LOS guarantees. By analyzing the properties of the UAV relay placement problem, it is found that searching on a plane that approximates the equipotential surface can achieve a good performance and complexity trade-off for a good placement of the UAV relay in 3D. Based on these insights, a two-stage online search algorithm on an equipotential plane (TOSEP) is developed for a special case where the equipotential surface turns out to be an equipotential plane. For the general case, a strategy called gradient projected online search algorithm on an approximated equipotential plane (GOSAEP) is developed, which approximates the equipotential surface with a perpendicular plane using the gradient projection method. Numerical experiments are conducted over a real-world city topology, and it is shown that the GOSAEP achieves over 95% of the performance of the exhaustive 3D search scheme within a 300-m search length.https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.23919/ICN.2023.0003free-space optical communicationrelay communicationunmanned aerial vehicle (uav)trajectory designcapacity maximization
spellingShingle Yuanshuai Zheng
Yinjun Wang
Junting Chen
Online search for UAV relay placement for free-space optical communication under shadowing
Intelligent and Converged Networks
free-space optical communication
relay communication
unmanned aerial vehicle (uav)
trajectory design
capacity maximization
title Online search for UAV relay placement for free-space optical communication under shadowing
title_full Online search for UAV relay placement for free-space optical communication under shadowing
title_fullStr Online search for UAV relay placement for free-space optical communication under shadowing
title_full_unstemmed Online search for UAV relay placement for free-space optical communication under shadowing
title_short Online search for UAV relay placement for free-space optical communication under shadowing
title_sort online search for uav relay placement for free space optical communication under shadowing
topic free-space optical communication
relay communication
unmanned aerial vehicle (uav)
trajectory design
capacity maximization
url https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.23919/ICN.2023.0003
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