Integrated Scheduling of Sensing, Communication, and Control for mmWave/THz Communications in Cellular Connected UAV Networks

Abstract

By providing ultra-high transmission data rate, millimeter wave (mmWave) and terahertz (THz) communications are promising to enable backhaul data transmission in cellular connected unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks. In such networks, with little or no human assistance, connected autonomous UAVs (CA-UAV) can build air-ground networks and achieve seamless wide-area coverage. With the usage of high frequency (i.e., mmWave/THz), radio/radar sensing function is expected to be achieved in wireless networks, which can be used to track UAV for beam tracking in mmWave/THz communications and motion control of UAV. However, it is extremely difficult to jointly design sensing, communication, and motion control since they have been developing in relatively parallel with limited intersections. In this paper, we propose a new integrated scheduling method of sensing, communication, and control for mmWave/THz communications in UAV networks to enable data transmission of the backhaul from UAV to the ground base station (BS). In the proposed method, we first analyze the interactions among sensing, communication, and motion control, where sensing and motion control are strongly coupled to form the sensing-control pattern. Then, we provide a new definition from motion control perspective, i.e., state-to-noise-ratio, which links the relationship between sensing-control pattern activation and data rate determined by beam alignment in mmWave/THz communications. Finally, a closed-form expression is obtained for data rate triggered sensing-control pattern activation design, where both data rate requirement in mmWave/THz communications and motion control performance of UAV are guaranteed. Simulation results show remarkable performance of the proposed method.