Resource Allocation in Cellular Networks with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

The integration of aerial user equipment (UEs) into existing cellular networks facilitates a number of applications such as the use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for delivery, aerial photography, surveillance and remote sensing. Though cellular networks are ubiquitous and can potentially provide reliable connectivity to UAVs, key questions need to be addressed especially how the inclusion of aerial UEs might impact the overall network efficiency. This is because cellular networks were initially designed and set up to serve ground users. Therefore introducing UAVs to the network comes with new challenges like degrading the quality of service for ground users. Our main objective therefore is to propose a scheme for optimal coexistence of UAVs with ground UEs in cellular networks. We derive an expression for the coverage probability for the UAVs and analyse its variation with several parameters. Our results show that UAVs are vulnerable to interference from base stations in LoS condition as the flying altitude increases. Restricting the flying altitudes could be beneficial for the communication capabilities. Therefore the altitude must be maintained low enough to avoid interference and yet high enough to maintain a clear signal reception from the serving base station.