Modelling and simulation for UAV‐aided vehicular MIMO communication channels

Abstract

For the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-aided vehicular multiple-input multiple-output Ricean fading channel, this study proposes a novel three-dimensional geometry-based stochastic model (GBSM). This model is the first GBSM for UAV-aided vehicular communication channels with the ability to investigate channel characteristics in different vehicular traffic density (VTD) scenarios, which is a combination of a single-cylinder model and an elliptic-cylinder model, and the signal is a sum of the line-of-sight component, single-bounced, and double-bounced rays. In addition, some expressions of channel statistical properties are derived, including space–time correlation function, space-Doppler spectral power density, envelope level crossing rate, and average fade duration. Based on the reference model, corresponding deterministic and stochastic simulation models are developed. Finally, the authors further explore the impact of some unique UAV-related parameters and different VTDs on channel statistics, and get some useful conclusions based on numerical results.