Abstract
An integrated access and backhaul (IAB) network architecture can enable flexible and fast deployment of the next-generation cellular networks. However, mutual interference between access and backhaul links, small inter-site distance, and spatial dynamics of user distribution pose major challenges in the practical deployment of the IAB networks. To tackle these problems, we leverage the flying capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as hovering IAB-nodes and propose an interference management algorithm to maximize the overall sum rate of the IAB network. In particular, we jointly optimize the user and base station associations, the downlink power allocations for access and backhaul transmissions, and the spatial configurations of the UAVs. We consider two spatial configuration modes of the UAVs, distributed UAVs and drone antenna array (DAA), and show how they are intertwined with the spatial distribution of ground users. Our numerical results show that the proposed algorithm achieves an average of 2.9× and 6.7× gains in the received downlink signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and overall network sum rate, respectively. Finally, the numerical results reveal that UAVs can not only be used for coverage improvement but also for capacity boosting in the IAB cellular networks.
Highlights
I N recent years, the concept of wireless backhauling has emerged as a potential solution to reduce the deployment cost of cellular networks [1], [2]
3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has introduced the integrated access and backhaul (IAB) network architecture to allow for flexible deployment of next-generation cellular networks [3], [4]
We demonstrate that the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in in-band IAB networks results in both coverage enhancement and capacity boosting
Summary
I N recent years, the concept of wireless backhauling has emerged as a potential solution to reduce the deployment cost of cellular networks [1], [2]. On the backhaul network side, the limitation of backhaul transmission capacity in UAV-assisted networks was discussed in [13], [14] These works have not considered tight interworking between access and backhaul links, along with the resulting inter-cell interference. We propose an interference management algorithm to jointly optimize user-BS associations, downlink power allocations and the 3D deployment of UAVs in UAV-assisted IAB networks. The first subproblem is solved using a two-stage fixed-point method to find user-BS associations and downlink power allocations for access and backhaul transmissions, given fixed UAV spatial configurations. As for the DAA configuration, the numerical results reveal that the achievable network performance gains are directly proportional to the number of drone elements in the DAA In this regard, we show how the computational complexity of the proposed algorithm can be independent of the number of UAVs when they are configured as DAA.
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