Low-Altitude UAV Air-to-Ground Multilink Channel Modeling and Analysis at 2.4 and 5.9 GHz

Abstract

Due to low cost and high operability, unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) becomes a key component in future intelligent transportation system(ITS) for various use cases. Air-to-ground(A2G) communication is a fundamental technology for integration of UAV in the ITS, where accurate analysis and modeling of UAV A2G wireless channel are of great importance for communication algorithm development. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis and modeling of low altitude UAV A2G channel at 2.4 and 5.9 GHz based on multi-link channel measurement campaign. Based on the measured data, the value of path loss as a function of the elevation angle and distance is proposed. Further, the shadow fading(SF) is analyzed for different frequency bands and the spatial correlation is evaluated. Particularly, it is found that the influence of UAV altitude on shadowing is significant and should be considered when developing A2G communication system.