Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Receiver Research Articles

Game Theoretic Physical Layer Authentication for Spoofing Detection in UAV Communications

In this paper, we propose a game theoretic framework for secure physical layer authentication (PLA) by applying the spatial correlations of received signal strength (RSS) in the air-to-ground channels between an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a legitimate transmitter, and a spoofer. Based on our hypothesis model, we first derive the false alarm rate and miss detection rate for the UAV receiver. We then formulate a zero-sum PLA game where the UAV receiver selects its RSS detection threshold while the spoofer selects its attack probability to maximize their respective utilities. We derive the Nash equilibrium (NE) and its existence condition for the proposed PLA game. Monte Carlo simulation results accurately verify our analytical expressions for the false alarm rate and miss detection rate. Numerical results highlight the complex interplay between the detection threshold, spoofing attack probability and UAV altitude in the derived NE.

Spectrum Allocation for Covert Communications in Cellular-Enabled UAV Networks: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach

This paper investigates the covert communications via spectrum allocations in a cellular-enabled unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) network consisting of a base station (BS), UAVs, ground users (GUs), and a warden, where warden attempts to detect the transmission from a target GU to a UAV receiver. We formulate the spectrum allocation as an optimization problem with the constraints of covertness performance requirement and the qualities of service (QoS) of cellular communications. This is a nonlinear and nonconvex problem, which is generally challenging to be solved. Thus, we propose a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approach to solve it. Under such an approach, we first model the multi-agent DRL environment in such networks. Then we define the state, action, reward and interaction mechanism of the DRL environment. Finally, a DRL algorithm is presented for learning the optimal policy of spectrum allocation.

UAV-Aided Covert Communication With a Multi-Antenna Jammer

Owing to the flexible mobility and convenient deployment, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aided networks can facilitate many applications. However, the open accessibility of wireless communication brings a great risk of privacy to UAV-based networks. Thus, in this paper, we propose a UAV-aided covert communication scheme assisted by a multi-antenna jammer to maximize the transmission rate between a ground transmitter and a UAV receiver against several randomly distributed wardens. The transmitter adopts the maximum ratio transmission, while the jammer zero-forces its transmitted signal at the UAV to disturb the monitoring at wardens without interfering the legitimate transmission. First, we analyze the detection performance and derive the optimal threshold for each warden to minimize its detection outage probability (DOP). Then, with the worst situation in which all wardens set their respective optimal thresholds to achieve the minimum global DOP, the location and the transmit power of the jammer are optimized to maximize the DOP. The location of UAV and the transmit power of the ground transmitter are also optimized to maximize the transmission rate with the minimum DOP requirement satisfied. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed UAV-aided covert communication scheme.

An adaptive deep learning-based UAV receiver design for coded MIMO with correlated noise

In this paper, we propose an adaptive deep learning-based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) receiver design for coded multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, where the noise in the systems presents some correlation among time domain, which deteriorates the system transmission performance severely. To improve the system performance, we employ the linear convolutional code at the transmitter, and then propose an adaptive deep learning based iterative UAV receiver. The iterative UAV receiver contains three parts: the detector such as zero-forcing (ZF) or minimum mean square error (MMSE) detector, the deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) which can help suppress the noise by capturing the correlation characteristics among noise, and the decoder such as Viterbi decoding. In particular, the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) appended to the code can help control the iteration of the detection, DCNN and decoding, which leads to an adaptive implementation of receiver. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed UAV receiver can achieve a much better bit error rate (BER) performance over conventional receivers with a reduced computational complexity.

Radio Map-Based 3D Path Planning for Cellular-Connected UAV

In this paper, we study the three-dimensional (3D) path planning for a cellular-connected unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to minimize its flying distance from given initial to final locations, while ensuring a target link quality in terms of the expected signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the UAV receiver with each of its associated ground base stations (GBSs) during the flight. To exploit the location-dependent and spatially varying channel as well as interference over the 3D space, we propose a new radio map based path planning framework for the UAV. Specifically, we consider the channel gain map of each GBS that provides its large-scale channel gains with uniformly sampled locations on a 3D grid, which are due to static and large-size obstacles (e.g., buildings) and thus assumed to be time-invariant. Based on the channel gain maps of GBSs as well as their loading factors, we then construct an SINR map that depicts the expected SINR levels over the sampled 3D locations. By leveraging the obtained SINR map, we proceed to derive the optimal UAV path by solving an equivalent shortest path problem (SPP) in graph theory. We further propose a grid quantization approach where the grid points in the SINR map are more coarsely sampled by exploiting the spatial channel/interference correlation over neighboring grids. Then, we solve an approximate SPP over the reduced-size SINR map (graph) with reduced complexity. Numerical results show that the proposed solution can effectively minimize the flying distance/time of the UAV subject to its communication quality constraint, and a flexible trade-off between performance and complexity can be achieved by adjusting the grid quantization ratio in the SINR map. Moreover, the proposed solution significantly outperforms various benchmark schemes without fully exploiting the channel/interference spatial distribution in the network.

Fundamental Rate Limits of UAV-Enabled Multiple Access Channel With Trajectory Optimization

This paper studies an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-enabled multiple access channel (MAC), in which multiple ground users transmit individual messages to a mobile UAV in the sky. We consider a linear topology scenario, where these users locate in a straight line and the UAV flies at a fixed altitude above the line connecting them. Under this setup, we jointly optimize the one-dimensional (1D) UAV trajectory and wireless resource allocation to reveal the fundamental rate limits of the UAV-enabled MAC, under the users' individual maximum power constraints and the UAV's maximum flight speed constraints. First, we consider the capacity-achieving non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) transmission with successive interference cancellation (SIC) at the UAV receiver. In this case, we characterize the capacity region by maximizing the average sum-rate of users subject to rate profile constraints. To optimally solve this highly non-convex problem, we transform the original speed-constrained trajectory optimization problem into a speed-free problem that is optimally solvable via the Lagrange dual decomposition. It is rigorously proved that the optimal 1D trajectory solution follows the successive hover-and-fly (SHF) structure. Next, we consider two orthogonal multiple access (OMA) transmission schemes, i.e., frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) and time-division multiple access (TDMA). We maximize the achievable rate regions in the two cases by jointly optimizing the 1D trajectory design and wireless resource (frequency/time) allocation. It is shown that the optimal trajectory solutions still follow the SHF structure but with different hovering locations. Finally, numerical results show that the proposed optimal trajectory designs achieve considerable rate gains over other benchmark schemes, and the capacity region achieved by NOMA significantly outperforms the rate regions by FDMA and TDMA.

Interference modeling and analysis in 3-dimensional directional UAV networks based on stochastic geometry

Abstract In this paper, we model and characterize interference of directional unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks based on stochastic geometry, where each UAV is equipped with a directional antenna and it communicates with another UAV that is located in the three dimensional (3D) space. In particular, the 3D location of UAVs is assumed to be uniformly distributed in a certain volume, which is modeled by Poisson point process. Given a beamwidth, we first design an ideal 3D directional antenna beam pattern with a constant gain of both main-lobe and side-lobe. To model the interference in the UAV network, we analyze the effect of elevation and azimuth between a typical UAV receiver and an interfering UAV transmitter with spherical coordinate system. Then, we investigate distribution of the aggregate interference at a typical UAV receiver from multiple UAVs in terms of side-lobe gain, beamwidth, height of UAV, and distance of a UAV transmitter–receiver pair.

Secure UAV-to-UAV Systems With Spatially Random UAVs

In this letter, we investigate the secrecy performance of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-to-UAV system, where a UAV acts as the source ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${S}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) transmitting information to a legitimate UAV receiver while a group of UAVs trying to eavesdrop the information delivery between <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${S}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and legitimate UAV receiver. The locations of the legitimate UAV receiver and the eavesdropping UAVs are randomly distributed in the coverage space of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${S}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> . We first characterize the statistical characteristics of the signal-to-noise ratio over <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${S}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> to the legitimate UAV receiver links; and then the closed-form analytical expressions for secrecy outage probability and the average secrecy capacity have also been derived accordingly. Finally, Monte-Carlo simulations are carried out to verify our proposed analytical models.

Path Planning for GEO-UAV Bistatic SAR Using Constrained Adaptive Multiobjective Differential Evolution

With the geosynchronous synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite as the transmitter, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can passively receive the echo within the illuminated ground area and achieve 2-D imaging of the interested target. This SAR system, known as GEO-UAV bistatic SAR, is capable of autonomously accomplishing the bistatic SAR mission in rough terrain environments by prespecifying a path for the UAV receiver. In this paper, the GEO-UAV bistatic SAR system is first investigated. The practical advantages and spatial resolution are then analyzed in detail. The spatial resolution of GEO-UAV bistatic SAR is dependent on the observation geometry, which is determined by the UAV path. Therefore, the path planning for GEO-UAV bistatic SAR aims at identifying a set of optimal paths for the UAV receiver to travel through a 3-D terrain environment that simultaneously guarantees the safety of the UAV and achieves SAR imaging with optimized performance during the flight. The path planning is modeled as a constrained multiobjective optimization problem (MOP), which accurately represents the two main aspects for the path planning problem, i.e., UAV navigation and bistatic SAR imaging. Then, a path planning method based on a constrained-adaptive-multiobjective-differential-evolution algorithm is proposed to solve the MOP and generate multiple feasible paths for the UAV receiver with different tradeoffs between navigation for UAV and bistatic SAR imaging performance. The GEO-UAV bistatic SAR mission designer can choose a path from the solution set according to the application requirements, which makes the method more pragmatic.

A guidance law for UAV autonomous aerial refueling based on the iterative computation method

The rendezvous and formation problem is a significant part for the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) technique. It can be divided into two major phases: the long-range guidance phase and the formation phase. In this paper, an iterative computation guidance law (ICGL) is proposed to compute a series of state variables to get the solution of a control variable for a UAV conducting rendezvous with a tanker in AAR. The proposed method can make the control variable converge to zero when the tanker and the UAV receiver come to a formation flight eventually. For the long-range guidance phase, the ICGL divides it into two sub-phases: the correction sub-phase and the guidance sub-phase. The two sub-phases share the same iterative process. As for the formation phase, a velocity coordinate system is created by which control accelerations are designed to make the speed of the UAV consistent with that of the tanker. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed ICGL is effective and robust against wind disturbance.

Analysis for Resolution of Bistatic SAR Configuration with Geosynchronous Transmitter and UAV Receiver

Bistatical SAR with geosynchronous illuminator and unmanned aerial vehicle receiver (GEO-UAV BiSAR) has significant potential advantages in the field of continuous local observation under a dangerous environment within nearly 24 h. Due to the extreme platform velocity differences, the ellipse orbital movement of GEOSAR makes this BiSAR configuration not like the conventional spaceborne BiSAR. In this paper, based on the orbital kinetic characteristic of GEOSAR, we theoretically analyze the variations of bistatic configuration effect on common azimuth coverage and coherent accumulated time. In addition, two-dimension the resolution is deduced by geometrical configuration on the basis of gradient method. The simulations show that the appropriate selection of initial bistatic configuration can restrain from the appearance of the dead zone in common coverage. And the image results are obtained by frequency domain RD based on Method of Series Reversion (MSR). It is shown that GEO-UAV BiSAR has the high resolution ability.