Debashisha Mishra (Simbiot) will defend his thesis, entitled “Exploiting the synergies of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and 5G network“, on Tuesday, June 13th at 11am in room C005.
As an expanding subject of aerial robotics, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have received substantial research attention within the wireless networking research community. As soon as national legislations enable UAVs to fly autonomously, we will witness swarms of UAV filling the skies of our smart cities to complete diverse missions: package delivery, infrastructure monitoring, event videography, surveillance, tracking, etc. Fifth generation (5G) and beyond cellular networks can improve UAV communications in a variety of ways and thus benefit the UAV ecosystem. There is a wide variety of wireless applications and use cases that can benefit from the capabilities of these smart devices, including the UAV’s inherent characteristics of agile mobility in three-dimensional space, autonomous operation, and intelligent placement. The broad goal of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the synergies that may be realized when combining 5G and beyond cellular networks with UAV technology. This thesis presents four types of UAV and cellular ecosystem integration models. UAV-assisted cellular paradigm refers to communication scenarios in which UAVs are used as flying (or aerial) base stations or as relays to augment current terrestrial cellular connectivity or to mitigate disaster situations. The cellular-assisted UAV paradigm foresees the integration of UAVs into the current cellular network as a new aerial user (flying UE) to serve a wide variety of applications and use cases. The UAV-to-UAV paradigm stresses the collective strength of a fleet of UAVs as a swarm and communication amongst UAVs inside the swarm. The hybrid non-terrestrial paradigm encompasses satellite and aerial networks, therefore examining the whole spectrum of communication links from the ground to the air to the space in the form of an integrated space-air-ground communication network.Initially, this thesis focuses on aerial base stations, which have gained great academic attention in order to provide flexible, on-demand communication services to ground users. On this occasion, we build and construct a proof-of-concept prototype platform that delineates the design components required to implement such platforms in the real world, and we then explain the necessity for optimal placement of aerial base stations. To support a heterogeneous class of 5G services from various vertical industries, we propose a slicing-aware aerial base station framework for ground users with differentiated traffic requirements. Second, we describe aerial users who are supported by current cellular infrastructure and examine difficulties such as coexistence of aerial users and ground users, handovers, and communication-aware trajectory optimization. A swarm of UAVs opens up new opportunities for new services and applications since the UAVs may independently coordinate their operations and work together to complete a given task. As part of this thesis, we offer centralized and decentralized network models for UAV-to-UAV (U2U) communication inside swarm and conduct a full investigation of sidelink-assisted U2U communication with performance assessment. Expanding beyond terrestrial networks, the 6G concept includes non-terrestrial networks such as satellite and aerial networks, and so investigates a wide range of disparate communication channels on the way to the ultimate goal of a unified space-air-ground infrastructure. To ensure that the development activities of business, academia, and independent research organizations are in sync, standardization bodies like 3GPP have established study topics and working groups. This dissertation shines a light on several innovative 6G enabling technologies and presents the in-depth research and evaluation of communication technology candidates, socio-economic concerns, and standardization activities being undertaken to harmonize UAV operations across varied geographical landscapes.
Reviewers :
Examiners :
Invited :
Supervisor :
