Modeling and Analysis of mmWave UAV Swarm Networks: A Stochastic Geometry Approach

Abstract

In order to evaluate the impacts of swarm distribution characteristics of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and the complexity of millimeter wave (mmWave) propagations on the coverage performance of UAV networks, this paper develops a stochastic geometry-based approach for the modeling and analysis of single- and multi-swarm UAV networks with mmWave communications. We first utilize binomial point processes (BPPs) to model the locations of UAVs in a finite area as a single-swarm UAV network and allow for arbitrary user locations. Then, we define multi-BPPs and extend our model to multi-swarm UAV networks. We consider an open-access strategy, where users access the closest UAV in all swarms, and derive the distance distributions of serving and interfering UAVs. Moreover, a three-dimensional (3D) blockage model and a 3D sectorized antenna model are introduced to completely depict the characteristics of air-to-ground channel in mmWave band. Based on the distance distributions and the Laplace transform of interference, coverage probabilities in considered networks are derived. Our results reveal that, there exists optimal height and density of UAV swarms that maximize the coverage probability. When densely deployed, the interference from inter-swarm cannot be negligible in the multi-swarm UAV network.