Cost- and Energy-Efficient Aerial Communication Networks with
Interleaved Hovering and Flying
Abstract
This work proposes a methodology for the energy-and cost-efficient 3-D
deployment of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based aerial access point
(AAP), that exchanges a given amount of independent data with a set of
ground user equipment (UE). Considering a fly-hover-communicate
transmission scheme, the most energy-efficient 3-D hovering points (HPs)
of the AAP are determined by decoupling the problem in the horizontal
and vertical dimensions. First, we derive analytically the optimal
hovering altitude that jointly maximizes the downlink and uplink global
energy efficiency (GEE) of the system. Next, we propose the multilevel
circle packing (MCP) algorithm to determine the minimal number of HPs
and their associated horizontal coordinates, such that the AAP covers
all the UEs in the given geographical area. A cost analysis is carried
out to observe the variation of both fixed and variable costs; these are
then minimized by suitably selecting the AAP’s battery parameters, like
the depth of discharge (DOD), defined as the portion of battery capacity
that is consumed during a discharge cycle, and the velocity of the UAV.
Simulation results show that: the UAV energy consumption has a
significant impact on the 3-D HPs of the AAP; the time spent during the
substitution swap of an out of power AAP has a major influence on the
operational cost; the cost of the system can be optimized by suitably
selecting the onboard battery and the UAV flight parameters.