Resource Allocation of Multiple Base Stations for Throughput Enhancement in UAV Relay Networks

Abstract

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), with the advantages of mobility and easy deployment, serves as a relay node in wireless networks, which are known as UAV relay networks (URNs), to support user equipment that is out of service range (Uo) or does not have a direct communication link from/to the base station (BS) due to severe blockage. Furthermore, URNs have become crucial for delivering temporary communication services in emergency states or in disaster areas where the infrastructure is destroyed. The literature has explored single transmissions from one BS to a UAV to establish a wireless backhaul link in the URN; however, there exists a possibility of Uo outages due to severe interference from an adjacent BS, causing an overall throughput degradation of user equipment (UE) in the URN. In this paper, to improve the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of a wireless backhaul link, avoid an outage of Uo, and guarantee a reliable relay transmission, simultaneous transmissions from multiple BSs (e.g., macrocell BSs (mBSs) and small cell BSs (sBSs)) is considered. An outage probability is analyzed, and an optimal transmit time allocation algorithm is proposed to maximize the throughput of the UE and guarantee a reliable relay transmission. Simulation results demonstrate that simultaneous transmissions from multiple BSs in the URN leads to higher throughput and reliable transmission without an Uo outage compared to a single transmission in the URN from a single BS (e.g., mBS or sBS), and the optimization of transmit time allocation is essential in the URN.