Our study proposes a UAV communications recovery strategy under meteorological conditions based on a ray tracing simulation of excessive path loss in four distinct three-dimensional (3D) urban environments. We start by reviewing the air-to-ground propagation loss model under meteorological conditions, as well as the specific attenuation of rain, fog, and snow, and we propose a new expression for line-of-sight (LoS) probability. Using the two frequency bands of 28 GHz and 71 GHz, we investigate the impact of specific attenuation caused by different weather conditions and analyze the relationship between the radius of the UAV coverage area and the elevation angle. Furthermore, we investigate the effects of the rainfall rate, liquid water density, and snowfall rate on the maximum coverage area and optimal height of the UAV. Eventually, we propose a strategy that involves compensating for the maximum path loss and adjusting the UAV’s position to recover the coverage of the UAV to ground users. Our results show that rain has the greatest impact on the UAV’s coverage area and optimum height among the three types of weather conditions. For various weather conditions, relative to Region 1, the percentage reduction in the maximum coverage radius of Region 2 to Region 4 increases gradually, and the extent of each increase is approximately 10%. Moreover, after adding the compensated path loss, the coverage radius of the UAV in the four regions is restored to a value slightly larger than that before the rain. In addition, rain caused the greatest reduction in UAV coverage for suburban environments and the lowest for high-rise urban environments.
Through ray tracing simulation on three-dimensional (3D) urban environments, we characterize air-to-ground (A2G) channels for 5G and beyond wireless communications. In this study, we review four types of elevation angle-dependent probability of line-of-sight (LoS) expressions according to building distribution types. With channel characterization data extracted from the ray tracing (RT) simulation, LoS probability versus elevation angle agrees better with the elevation angle-dependent probability expressions of LoS that assumes the buildings are randomly distributed. Furthermore, we provide a more accurate LoS probability expression that enables better curve-fitting for the LoS probability data obtained from RT simulations. In addition, the A2G channel parameters such as LoS and non-line-of-sight (NLoS) channel path loss exponents (PLEs) and the shadow fading with UAV altitudes are obtained in four typical and realistic urban environments. The LoS PLEs increase slowly with the height of the UAV, while the NLoS one decreases significantly with the increase of the UAV height.INDEX TERMS Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), line-of-sight (LoS) probability, air-to-ground (A2G), ray tracing (RT), realistic urban environments, path loss exponent (PLE).
As 5G wireless systems and networks are now being globally commercialized and deployed, more diversified application scenarios are emerging, quickly reshaping our societies and paving the road to the beyond 5G (6G) era when terahertz (THz) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications may play critical roles. In this paper, aerial channel models under multiple meteorological conditions such as rain, fog and snow, have been investigated at frequencies of interest (from 2 GHz to 900 GHz) for UAV communications. Furthermore, the link budget and the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) performance under the existing air-to-ground (A2G) channel models are studied with antenna(s) system considered. The relationship between the 3D coverage radius and UAV altitude under the influence of multiple weather (MW) conditions is simulated. Numerical results show that medium rain has the most effects on the UAV's coverage for UAV communications at millimeter wave (mmWave) bands, while snow has the largest impacts at near THz bands. In addition, when the frequency increases, the corresponding increase in the number of antennas can effectively compensate for the propagation loss introduced by weather factors, while its form factor and weight can be kept to maintain the UAV's payload.
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