Space-Air-Ground Integrated 6G Wireless Communication Networks: A Review of Antenna Technologies and Application Scenarios

A review of technological solutions and advances in the framework of a Vertical Heterogeneous Network (VHetNet) integrating satellite, airborne and terrestrial networks is presented. The disruptive features and challenges offered by a fruitful cooperation among these segments within a ubiquitous and seamless wireless connectivity are described. The available technologies and the key research directions for achieving global wireless coverage by considering all these layers are thoroughly discussed. Emphasis is placed on the available antenna systems in satellite, airborne and ground layers by highlighting strengths and weakness and by providing some interesting trends in research. A summary of the most suitable applicative scenarios for future 6G wireless communications are finally illustrated

Data Fusion-Based Predictive Beamforming for Downlink UAV-Assisted Massive MIMO Communication

In this letter, we propose a data fusion-based predictive beamforming scheme for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication, which involves a base station and UAV, each equipped with a massive MIMO array. We consider aircraft dynamics to track and predict the trajectory and orientation of the UAV. To improve communication and tracking performance, we propose a novel fusion of the channel and motion data of the UAV using an extended Kalman filter (EKF). Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can improve overall spectral efficiency, particularly when the number of antennas is large

Placement and power allocation for NOMA-UAV networks

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be used as flying base stations to provide ubiquitous connections for mobile devices in over-crowded areas. On the other hand, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is a promising technique to support massive connectivity. In this letter, the placement and power allocation (PA) are jointly optimized to improve the performance of the NOMA-UAV network. Since the formulated joint optimization problem is non-convex, the location of the UAV is first optimized, with the total path loss from the UAV to users minimized. Then, the PA for NOMA is optimized using the optimal location of the UAV to maximize the sum rate of the network. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed scheme for NOMA-UAV networks

Joint 3D Trajectory and Power Optimization for UAV-aided mmWave MIMO-NOMA Networks

This paper considers an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-aided millimeter Wave (mmWave) multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system, where a UAV serves as a flying base station (BS) to provide wireless access services to a set of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in different clusters. We aim to maximize the downlink sum rate by jointly optimizing the three-dimensional (3D) placement of the UAV, beam pattern and transmit power. To address this problem, we first transform the non-convex problem into a total path loss minimization problem, and hence the optimal 3D placement of the UAV can be achieved via standard convex optimization techniques. Then, the multiobjective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D) based algorithm is presented for the shaped-beam pattern synthesis of an antenna array. Finally, by transforming the original problem into an optimal power allocation problem under the fixed 3D placement of the UAV and beam pattern, we derive the closed-form expression of transmit power based on Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions. In addition, inspired by fraction programming (FP), we propose a FP-based suboptimal algorithm to achieve a near-optimal performance. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves a significant performance gain in terms of sum rate for all IoT devices, as compared with orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) scheme

UAV-assisted emergency networks in disasters

Reliable and flexible emergency communication is a key challenge for search and rescue in the event of disasters, especially for the case when base stations (BSs) are no longer functioning. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assisted network is emerging as a promising method to establish emergency networks. In this article, a unified framework of UAV-assisted emergency network is established in disasters. First, the trajectory and scheduling of UAV are jointly optimized to provide wireless service to ground devices with surviving BSs. Then, the transceiver design of UAV and establishment of multi-hop ground device-to- device (D2D) communication are studied to extend the wireless coverage of UAV. In addition, multi-hop UAV relaying is added to realize information exchange between the disaster areas and outside through optimizing the hovering positions of UAVs. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of these three schemes. Finally, open research issues and challenges are discussed