Energy-Efficient 3D Deployment of Aerial Access Points in a UAV Communication System

In this letter, we propose an energy-efficient 3-dimensional placement of multiple aerial access points (AAPs), in the desired area, acting as flying base stations for uplink communication from a set of ground user equipment (UE). The globally optimal energy-efficient vertical position of AAPs is derived analytically by considering the inter-cell interference and AAP energy consumption. The horizontal position of AAPs which maximize the packing density of the AAP coverage area are determined using a novel regular polygon-based AAP placement algorithm. We also determine the maximum number of non-interfering AAPs that can be placed in the desired area. The effect of the AAP energy consumption on the optimal placement and the analytic findings are verified via numerical simulations.
Comment: This version of the work has been accepted for publication in the IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS. 6 pages; 5 figures