Using drone base stations (drone-BSs) in wireless networks has started attracting attention. Drone-BSs can assist the ground BSs in both capacity and coverage enhancement. One of the important problems about integrating drone-BSs to cellular networks is the management of their placement to satisfy the dynamic system requirements. In this paper, we propose a method to find the positions of drone-BSs in an area with different user densities using a heuristic algorithm. The goal is to find the minimum number of drone-BSs and their 3D placement so that all the users are served. Our simulation results show that the proposed approach can satisfy the quality-of-service requirements of the network.

Using drones as flying base stations is a promising approach to enhance the network coverage and area capacity by moving supply towards demand when required. However deployment of such base stations can face some restrictions that need to be considered. One of the limitations in drone base stations (drone-BSs) deployment is the availability of reliable wireless backhaul link. This paper investigates how different types of wireless backhaul offering various data rates would affect the number of served users. Two approaches, namely, network-centric and user-centric, are introduced and the optimal 3D backhaul-aware placement of a drone-BS is found for each approach. To this end, the total number of served users and sum-rates are maximized in the network-centric and user-centric frameworks, respectively. Moreover, as it is preferred to decrease drone-BS movements to save more on battery and increase flight time and to reduce the channel variations, the robustness of the network is examined as how sensitive it is with respect to the users displacements.

This paper considers an aerial base station (aerial-BS) assisted terrestrial network where user mobility is taken into account. User movement changes the network dynamically which may result in performance loss. To avoid this loss, guarantee a minimum quality-of-service (QoS) and possibly increase the QoS, we add an aerial-BS to the network. For fair comparison between the conventional terrestrial network and the aerial-BS assisted one, we keep the total number of BSs identical in both networks. Obtaining the best performance in such networks highly depends on the optimal placement of the aerial-BS. To this end, an algorithm which can rely on general and realistic assumptions and can decide where to go based on the past experiences is required. The proposed approach for this goal is based on a discounted reward reinforcement learning which is known as Q-learning. Simulation results show this method provides an effective placement strategy which increases the QoS of wireless networks when it is needed and promises to find the optimum position of the aerial-BS in discrete environments.

Drone base stations (DBSs) can enhance network coverage and area capacity by moving supply towards demand when required. This degree of freedom could be especially useful for future applications with extreme demands, such as ultra reliable and low latency communications (uRLLC). However, deployment of DBSs can face several challenges. One issue is finding the 3D placement of such BSs to satisfy dynamic requirements of the system. Second, the availability of reliable wireless backhaul links and the related resource allocation are principal issues that should be considered. Finally, association of the users with BSs becomes an involved problem due to mobility of DBSs. In this paper, we consider a macro-BS (MBS) and several DBSs that rely on the wireless links to the MBS for backhauling. Considering regular and uRLLC users, we propose an algorithm to find efficient 3D locations of DBSs in addition to the user-BS associations and wireless backhaul bandwidth allocations to maximize the sum logarithmic rate of the users. To this end, a decomposition method is employed to first find the user-BS association and bandwidth allocations. Then DBS locations are updated using a heuristic particle swarm optimization algorithm. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method and provide useful insights on the effects of traffic distributions and antenna beamwidth.

Aerial platforms are expected to deliver enhanced and seamless connectivity in the fifth generation (5G) wireless networks and beyond (B5G). This is generally achievable by supporting advanced onboard communication features embedded in heavy and energy-intensive equipment. Alternatively, reconfigurable smart surfaces (RSS), which smartly exploit/recycle signal reflections in the environment, are increasingly being recognized as a new wireless communication paradigm to improve communication links. In fact, their reduced cost, low power use, light weight, and flexible deployment make them an attractive candidate for integration with 5G/B5G technologies. In this article, we discuss comprehensive approaches to the integration of RSS in aerial platforms. First, we present a review of RSS technology, its operations and types of communication. Next, we describe how RSS can be used in aerial platforms, and we propose a control architecture workflow. Then, several potential use cases are presented and discussed. Finally, associated research challenges are identified.

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