This paper analyses the potential of utilising small unmanned-aerial-vehicles
(SUAV) as wireless relays for assisting cellular network performance. Whilst
high altitude wireless relays have been investigated over the past 2 decades,
the new class of low cost SUAVs offers new possibilities for addressing local
traffic imbalances and providing emergency coverage.We present field-test
results from an SUAV test-bed in both urban and rural environments. The results
show that trough-to-peak throughput improvements can be achieved for users in
poor coverage zones. Furthermore, the paper reinforces the experimental study
with large-scale network analysis using both stochastic geometry and multi-cell
simulation results.Comment: conferenc
