Journal of Applied Sciences ›› 2021, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (3): 398-397.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.0255-8297.2021.03.006

• Communication Engineering • Previous Articles    

Path Loss Prediction for UAV-to-Ground Millimeter Wave Communications

YANG Jingwen1, ZHU Qiuming1, WANG Jian2, YAO Mengtian1, CHEN Xiaomin1, ZHONG Weizhi1   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Dynamic Cognitive System of Electromagnetic Spectrum Space, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, Jiangsu, China;
    2. Innovation Service Center, China Research Institute of Radio Wave Propagation, Qingdao 266107, Shandong, China
  • Received:2020-02-01 Published:2021-06-08

Abstract: For the complex propagation environment experienced by millimeter wave (mmWave) communications between unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to ground, considering the factors of outdoor path loss, indoor path loss, penetration loss, and rain attenuation, this paper presents a novel UAV-to-ground composite propagation loss prediction model. In the model, the density and height of buildings are adopted to depict different scenarios, such as urban, suburban, and rural areas. Further, light-of-sight (LoS) probability with respect to the UAV height is adopted to get the statistical average value of path loss. The proposed model is simulated and validated onto a campus scene at different distances and heights by using a ray tracing method. Comparison and analysis show that the results of the proposed model agree well with those of ray-tracing method, and the maximum errors of three specific scenarios are 5.2 dB, 4.8 dB, and 7.2 dB, respectively. This proves that the proposed model is potential in the prediction of propagation loss and the performance evaluation of UAV-to-ground mmWave communication systems.

Key words: unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), millimeter wave communication, propagation loss, line-of-sight (LoS) probability, ray tracing

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