2 research outputs found
Handling Spontaneous Traffic Variations in 5G+ via Offloading onto mmWave-Capable UAV `Bridges'
Get PDFUnmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly employed for numerous public
and civil applications, such as goods delivery, medicine, surveillance, and
telecommunications. For the latter, UAVs with onboard communication equipment
may help temporarily offload traffic onto the neighboring cells in
fifth-generation networks and beyond (5G+). In this paper, we propose and
evaluate the use of UAVs traveling over the area of interest to relieve
congestion in 5G+ systems under spontaneous traffic fluctuations. To this end,
we assess two inherently different offloading schemes, named routed and
controlled UAV `bridging'. Using the tools of renewal theory and stochastic
geometry, we analytically characterize these schemes in terms of the fraction
of traffic demand that can be offloaded onto the UAV `bridge' as our parameter
of interest. This framework accounts for the unique features of millimeter-wave
(mmWave) radio propagation and city deployment types with potential
line-of-sight (LoS) link blockage by buildings. We also introduce enhancements
to the proposed schemes that significantly improve the offloading gains. Our
findings offer evidence that the UAV `bridges' may be used for efficient
traffic offloading in various urban scenarios.Comment: This work has been accepted for publication in the IEEE Transactions
on Vehicular Technolog
