February 12, 2016 | Yong Zeng, Rui Zhang, and Teng Joon Lim
The article "Wireless Communications with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Opportunities and Challenges" by Yong Zeng, Rui Zhang, and Teng Joon Lim provides an overview of UAV-aided wireless communications, highlighting its potential and the challenges it presents. UAVs, known for their high mobility and low cost, have found applications in various fields, including weather monitoring, forest fire detection, and emergency response. The article discusses the advantages of using UAVs for wireless communications, such as cost-effectiveness, rapid deployment, and the ability to establish short-range line-of-sight (LoS) links. However, it also addresses the challenges, including the need for additional control and non-payload communications (CNPC) links, dynamic network topologies, and energy constraints.
The basic networking architecture of UAV-aided wireless communications is outlined, including CNPC links for safety-critical functions and data links for mission-related communications. The channel characteristics of UAV-ground and UAV-UAV channels are detailed, noting the complexity of UAV-ground channels due to obstacles and the dominance of LoS links in UAV-UAV channels.
Key design considerations are discussed, such as UAV path planning, energy-aware deployment and operation, and the application of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology. The article also explores techniques for enhancing performance, including UAV-enabled mobile relaying and device-to-device (D2D)-enhanced UAV information dissemination, which leverage UAV mobility to improve communication efficiency.
In conclusion, the article emphasizes the potential of UAV-aided wireless communications and the need for further research to address the challenges and capitalize on the opportunities presented by this technology.The article "Wireless Communications with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Opportunities and Challenges" by Yong Zeng, Rui Zhang, and Teng Joon Lim provides an overview of UAV-aided wireless communications, highlighting its potential and the challenges it presents. UAVs, known for their high mobility and low cost, have found applications in various fields, including weather monitoring, forest fire detection, and emergency response. The article discusses the advantages of using UAVs for wireless communications, such as cost-effectiveness, rapid deployment, and the ability to establish short-range line-of-sight (LoS) links. However, it also addresses the challenges, including the need for additional control and non-payload communications (CNPC) links, dynamic network topologies, and energy constraints.
The basic networking architecture of UAV-aided wireless communications is outlined, including CNPC links for safety-critical functions and data links for mission-related communications. The channel characteristics of UAV-ground and UAV-UAV channels are detailed, noting the complexity of UAV-ground channels due to obstacles and the dominance of LoS links in UAV-UAV channels.
Key design considerations are discussed, such as UAV path planning, energy-aware deployment and operation, and the application of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology. The article also explores techniques for enhancing performance, including UAV-enabled mobile relaying and device-to-device (D2D)-enhanced UAV information dissemination, which leverage UAV mobility to improve communication efficiency.
In conclusion, the article emphasizes the potential of UAV-aided wireless communications and the need for further research to address the challenges and capitalize on the opportunities presented by this technology.