An UAV-Based Experimental Setup for Propagation Characterization in Urban Environment

Abstract

A measurement setup, including millimeter-wave and ultrawideband transceivers mounted on both a customized unmanned aerial vehicle and a ground station and a measurement procedure for full 3-D wireless propagation analysis, is described in this work. The custom-made developed system represents a flexible solution for the characterization of wireless channels and especially of urban propagation, as the drone might be easily located almost anywhere from ground level to the buildings' rooftop and beyond. The double-directional properties of the channel can be achieved by rotating directive antennas at the link ends. Other possible applications in urban contexts include the study of outdoor-to-indoor penetration, line-of-sight to nonline-of-sight transition, 3-D scattering from buildings, and airto-ground channel characterization for drone-assisted wireless communications.

Channel Knowledge Map Construction Based on a UAV-Assisted Channel Measurement System

“…A deep understanding of channel knowledge in the UAV communication environment is of great significance for the reliable UAV-related communication [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Channel measurement is an important method to obtain channel knowledge in real communication scenarios [12][13][14][15][16][17]. However, it can only obtain the channel knowledge at a specific location, and is not suitable for the large-scale propagation environment.…”