Traffic and Obstacle-Aware UAV Positioning in Urban Environments Using Reinforcement Learning

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are suited as cost-effective and adaptable platforms for carrying Wi-Fi Access Points (APs) and cellular Base Stations (BSs). Implementing aerial networks in disaster management scenarios and crowded areas can effectively enhance Quality of Service (QoS). Maintaining...

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Main Authors: Kamran Shafafi, Manuel Ricardo, Rui Campos
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2024-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10792915/
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author Kamran Shafafi
Manuel Ricardo
Rui Campos
author_facet Kamran Shafafi
Manuel Ricardo
Rui Campos
author_sort Kamran Shafafi
collection DOAJ
description Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are suited as cost-effective and adaptable platforms for carrying Wi-Fi Access Points (APs) and cellular Base Stations (BSs). Implementing aerial networks in disaster management scenarios and crowded areas can effectively enhance Quality of Service (QoS). Maintaining Line-of-Sight (LoS) in such environments, especially at higher frequencies, is crucial for ensuring reliable communication networks with high capacity, particularly in environments with obstacles. The main contribution of this paper is a traffic- and obstacle-aware UAV positioning algorithm named Reinforcement Learning-based Traffic and Obstacle-aware Positioning Algorithm (RLTOPA), for such environments. RLTOPA determines the optimal position of the UAV by considering the positions of ground users, the coordinates of obstacles, and the traffic demands of users. This positioning aims to maximize QoS in terms of throughput by ensuring optimal LoS between ground users and the UAV. The network performance of the proposed solution, characterized in terms of mean delay and throughput, was evaluated using the ns-3 simulator. The results show up to 95% improvement in aggregate throughput and 71% in delay without compromising fairness.
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spelling doaj-art-21c7205fbcd1462abc4ce41449cbf5502025-08-20T02:49:09ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362024-01-011218865218866310.1109/ACCESS.2024.351565410792915Traffic and Obstacle-Aware UAV Positioning in Urban Environments Using Reinforcement LearningKamran Shafafi0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6211-7923Manuel Ricardo1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1969-958XRui Campos2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9419-6670INESC TEC, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto, Porto, PortugalINESC TEC, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto, Porto, PortugalINESC TEC, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto, Porto, PortugalUnmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are suited as cost-effective and adaptable platforms for carrying Wi-Fi Access Points (APs) and cellular Base Stations (BSs). Implementing aerial networks in disaster management scenarios and crowded areas can effectively enhance Quality of Service (QoS). Maintaining Line-of-Sight (LoS) in such environments, especially at higher frequencies, is crucial for ensuring reliable communication networks with high capacity, particularly in environments with obstacles. The main contribution of this paper is a traffic- and obstacle-aware UAV positioning algorithm named Reinforcement Learning-based Traffic and Obstacle-aware Positioning Algorithm (RLTOPA), for such environments. RLTOPA determines the optimal position of the UAV by considering the positions of ground users, the coordinates of obstacles, and the traffic demands of users. This positioning aims to maximize QoS in terms of throughput by ensuring optimal LoS between ground users and the UAV. The network performance of the proposed solution, characterized in terms of mean delay and throughput, was evaluated using the ns-3 simulator. The results show up to 95% improvement in aggregate throughput and 71% in delay without compromising fairness.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10792915/Unmanned aerial vehiclesUAV positioningaerial networksLoS communications technologyreinforcement learninghigh-capacity communications
spellingShingle Kamran Shafafi
Manuel Ricardo
Rui Campos
Traffic and Obstacle-Aware UAV Positioning in Urban Environments Using Reinforcement Learning
IEEE Access
Unmanned aerial vehicles
UAV positioning
aerial networks
LoS communications technology
reinforcement learning
high-capacity communications
title Traffic and Obstacle-Aware UAV Positioning in Urban Environments Using Reinforcement Learning
title_full Traffic and Obstacle-Aware UAV Positioning in Urban Environments Using Reinforcement Learning
title_fullStr Traffic and Obstacle-Aware UAV Positioning in Urban Environments Using Reinforcement Learning
title_full_unstemmed Traffic and Obstacle-Aware UAV Positioning in Urban Environments Using Reinforcement Learning
title_short Traffic and Obstacle-Aware UAV Positioning in Urban Environments Using Reinforcement Learning
title_sort traffic and obstacle aware uav positioning in urban environments using reinforcement learning
topic Unmanned aerial vehicles
UAV positioning
aerial networks
LoS communications technology
reinforcement learning
high-capacity communications
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10792915/
work_keys_str_mv AT kamranshafafi trafficandobstacleawareuavpositioninginurbanenvironmentsusingreinforcementlearning
AT manuelricardo trafficandobstacleawareuavpositioninginurbanenvironmentsusingreinforcementlearning
AT ruicampos trafficandobstacleawareuavpositioninginurbanenvironmentsusingreinforcementlearning