UAV Path Planning With QoS Constraint in Device-to-Device 5G Networks Using Particle Swarm Optimization

Lin Shi,Shoukun Xu

doi:10.1109/access.2020.3010281

Abstract

Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAVs) are tasked to collect sensory data which are typically retrieved after the flight. The emergence of 5G and Device-to-Device (D2D) networks enables high speed network communication for UAVs to transfer data during a flight mission instead of post flight. UAVs are now subject to constraints of area coverage, battery capacity and network quality of service, making their path planning more challenging. In this paper, we formulate the issue as a combinatorial optimization problem which minimizes the flight cost of multiple UAVs covering the entire area. We show this problem is NP-hard, therefore we propose a Particle Swarm Optimization heuristic along with path encoding and local search techniques to solve the problem. Our numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach and how the size of the area and D2D link affect the number of UAVs needed and their flight time.

Highlights

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been instrumental in a wide range of applications such as disaster relief, object tracking, surveillance, farming, etc
This type of ‘‘record-offload-process’’ approach faces a number of serious challenges: (1) the volume of sensory data is too substantial to be retained onboard of the UAVs due to the cost of high-speed and high-capacity onboard storage, driving up the cost and power consumption of a UAV; (2) data loss due to malfunction or crash of a UAV may lead to flight mission failure and require a complete rerun of the flights; The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and approving it for publication was Halil Ersin Soken
The network quality of service (QoS) is largely affected by the flight path of UAVs and how the UAVs communicate with base stations and other UAVs

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been instrumental in a wide range of applications such as disaster relief, object tracking, surveillance, farming, etc. The network QoS is largely affected by the flight path of UAVs and how the UAVs communicate with base stations and other UAVs. It is challenging to ensure the sensor data are transferred in a streaming fashion without loss to the data receiver during a flight mission. It is challenging to ensure the sensor data are transferred in a streaming fashion without loss to the data receiver during a flight mission In such a context, the planning of UAV flight path remains an important task in ensuring the coverage of the target area, yet faces new constraints on network QoS due to data streaming requirements. Different from a conventional path planning problem, the UAVs transfer data to a data receiver in 5G networks with support of D2D links, bounded by three orthogonal constraints of network data rate requirements, battery capacity (i.e. flight time) and area coverage.

BACKGROUND

UAV COVERAGE

COVERAGE PATH PLANNING WITH QoS CONSTRAINT

PREPARATION Lemma 1

QoS AWARE PATH PLANNING CONSTRAINTS AND OBJECTIVE

CONCLUSION