Kishk, Mustafa A. and Bader, Ahmed and Alouini, Mohamed-Slim (2020) Aerial Base Station Deployment in 6G Cellular Networks Using Tethered Drones: The Mobility and Endurance Tradeoff. IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine, 15 (4). pp. 103-111. ISSN 1556-6072

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Abstract

Airborne base stations (BSs) (carried by drones) have a great potential to enhance the coverage and capacity of 6G cellular networks. However, one of the main challenges facing the deployment of airborne BSs is the limited available energy at the drone, which curtails the flight time. In fact, most current unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can only operate for a maximum of 1 h. The need to frequently visit the ground station (GS) to recharge limits the performance of the UAV-enabled cellular network and leaves the UAV?s coverage area temporarily out of service. In this article, we propose a UAV-enabled cellular network setup based on tethered UAVs (tUAVs). In the proposed setup, the tUAV is connected to a GS through a tether, which provides the tUAV with both energy and data. This enables a flight that can last for days. We describe in detail the components of the proposed system. Furthermore, we list the main advantages of a tUAV-enabled cellular network compared to typical untethered UAVs (uUAVs). Next, we discuss the potential applications and use cases for tUAVs. We also provide Monte Carlo simulations to compare the performance of tUAVs and uUAVs in terms of coverage probability. For instance, for a uUAV that is available 70% of the time (while unavailable because of charging or changing the battery 30% of the time), the simulation results show that tUAVs with a 120-m tether length can provide up to a 30% increase in coverage probability compared to uUAVs. Finally, we discuss the challenges, design considerations, and future research directions to realize the proposed setup.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Aerial base station; deployment; 6G; Cellular networks; tethered drones;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Electronic Engineering Faculty of Science and Engineering > Research Institutes > Hamilton Institute
Item ID:	16996
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1109/MVT.2020.3017885
Depositing User:	Mustafa Kishk
Date Deposited:	06 Mar 2023 15:32
Journal or Publication Title:	IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine
Publisher:	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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