Experimental evaluation of multi-antenna receivers for UAV communication in live LTE networks

Tomasz Izydorczyk, Madalina Cristina Bucur, Fernando Menezes Leitão Tavares, Gilberto Berardinelli, Preben Elgaard Mogensen

Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/conference proceedingArticle in proceedingResearchpeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)
396 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) communication is known to suffer from significant interference due to the clearance of the radio paths with ground base stations. Multi-antenna receive combining has the promise of alleviating the impact of interference, translating to improved connectivity performance. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of Conventional Beamforming (CB) and Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC) receivers for UAV communication based on live Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks. Our measurement setup consists of nine Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) boards and a circular antenna array with sixteen elements. The LTE signals are recorded at different UAV flight heights in urban environments, and processed offline. Results show similar Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (SINR) performance by MRC and CB, with CB slightly outperforming MRC provided knowledge of LTE signal structure is used for the beam selection. No significant dependency from the flight height has been observed. The outage probability analysis further emphasizes the benefits of using CB in the studied scenarios.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2018 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps)
Number of pages6
PublisherIEEE
Publication date19 Feb 2019
Article number8644068
ISBN (Print)978-1-5386-4921-3
ISBN (Electronic)978-1-5386-4920-6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Feb 2019
Event2018 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps) - Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Duration: 9 Dec 201813 Dec 2018

Conference

Conference2018 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps)
Country/TerritoryUnited Arab Emirates
CityAbu Dhabi
Period09/12/201813/12/2018
SeriesIEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps)
ISSN2166-0077

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