Joint Resource Management and Deployment Optimization for Heterogeneous Aerial Networks With Backhaul Constraints

How to improve the coverage capability of network including connectivity and throughput is vital for enabling the Internet of Everything (IoE) in B5G/6G. However, the traditional terrestrial networks are confronted with the high-cost and inflexible challenges especially in the remote area and emergency applications. In order to solve these challenges, we consider a heterogeneous aerial network (HetAN), where some low-altitude base stations (LBSs) are deployed as access points for wireless coverage and a high-altitude base station (HBS) hovers as the hub for backhaul of LBSs. Furthermore, we apply the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) to uplink transmission for the terrestrial users, which enable massive connectivity in the IoE. To maximize connectivity and throughput, we jointly optimize the LBSs’ deployment, power control, channel allocation, and rate control by fully exploiting the potential of the HetAN in wide-area coverage. For solving the formulated problem efficiently, we propose an iterative algorithm based on the methods of graph theory, bionic algorithm, and theoretical analysis. Simulation results are provided to reveal the influence of the control variables on network performance and indicate that our algorithm can greatly improve the connectivity and throughput with the other schemes.