Sensing and Communication in UAV Cellular Networks: Design and Optimization

Recently, the use of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) in joint sensing and communication applications has received a lot of attention. However, integrating UAVs in current cellular systems presents major challenges related to trajectory optimization and interference management among others. This paper considers a multi-cell network including a UAV, which senses and forwards the sensory data from different events to the central base station. Particularly, the current manuscript covers how to design the UAV’s ( i ) 3D trajectory, ( ii ) power allocation, and ( iii ) sensing scheduling such that (a) a set of events are sensed, (b) interference to neighboring cells is kept at bay, and (c) the amount of energy required by the UAV is minimized. The resulting nonconvex optimization problem is tackled through a combination of ( i ) low-complexity binary optimization, ( ii ) successive convex approximation, and ( iii ) the Lagrangian method. Simulation results over a range of various key parameters have shown the merits of our approach, which consumes 33%-200% less energy compared to different benchmarks.