Communication Infrastructure Design for Reliable UAV Operations in Air Mobility Corridors
The integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into urban air mobility (UAM) systems necessitates reliable and uninterrupted communication infrastructure to ensure safety, control, and data continuity within designated air corridors. This paper proposes and evaluates four radio repeater deployme...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Drones |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/9/6/401 |
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| author | Igor Kabashkin Duman Iskakov Roman Topilskiy Gulnar Tlepiyeva Timur Sultanov Zura Sansyzbayeva |
| author_facet | Igor Kabashkin Duman Iskakov Roman Topilskiy Gulnar Tlepiyeva Timur Sultanov Zura Sansyzbayeva |
| author_sort | Igor Kabashkin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into urban air mobility (UAM) systems necessitates reliable and uninterrupted communication infrastructure to ensure safety, control, and data continuity within designated air corridors. This paper proposes and evaluates four radio repeater deployment strategies to support robust UAV communication in urban environments: Strategy 1 with non-overlapping radio coverage, Strategy 2 with fully overlapping coverage zones, Strategy 3 with alternating redundancy between repeater pairs, and Strategy 4 with full duplication of overlapping coverage. A continuous-time Markov modeling approach is employed to quantify communication availability under varying traffic loads and failure conditions. The strategies are assessed based on infrastructure requirements, reliability performance, and suitability for segmented and non-linear corridor geometries. The results show that increasing redundancy significantly improves reliability: for example, channel unavailability drops from 35% under Strategy 1 (no redundancy) to less than 0.5% under Strategy 4 (full duplication). Strategy 3 achieves a balanced performance, maintaining unavailability below 1% with approximately 50% fewer resources than Strategy 4. A case study in the Greenline district of Astana, Kazakhstan, illustrates the practical application of the framework, demonstrating how hybrid deployment strategies can address different operational and environmental demands. The results show that increasing redundancy significantly enhances availability, with Strategy 3 offering the most efficient balance between reliability and resource use. The proposed methodology provides a scalable foundation for designing resilient UAV communication systems to support future urban airspace operations. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-94abb71096bc40979de3d3a757ec149c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2504-446X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Drones |
| spelling | doaj-art-94abb71096bc40979de3d3a757ec149c2025-08-20T03:27:18ZengMDPI AGDrones2504-446X2025-05-019640110.3390/drones9060401Communication Infrastructure Design for Reliable UAV Operations in Air Mobility CorridorsIgor Kabashkin0Duman Iskakov1Roman Topilskiy2Gulnar Tlepiyeva3Timur Sultanov4Zura Sansyzbayeva5Engineering Faculty, Transport and Telecommunication Institute, Lauvas 2, LV-1019 Riga, LatviaLLP “Universal Tech Decisions”, Kabanbay Batyr Avenue 53/42, Astana Z05H0P9, KazakhstanLLP “Universal Tech Decisions”, Kabanbay Batyr Avenue 53/42, Astana Z05H0P9, KazakhstanLLP “Universal Tech Decisions”, Kabanbay Batyr Avenue 53/42, Astana Z05H0P9, KazakhstanLLP “Universal Tech Decisions”, Kabanbay Batyr Avenue 53/42, Astana Z05H0P9, KazakhstanLLP “Universal Tech Decisions”, Kabanbay Batyr Avenue 53/42, Astana Z05H0P9, KazakhstanThe integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into urban air mobility (UAM) systems necessitates reliable and uninterrupted communication infrastructure to ensure safety, control, and data continuity within designated air corridors. This paper proposes and evaluates four radio repeater deployment strategies to support robust UAV communication in urban environments: Strategy 1 with non-overlapping radio coverage, Strategy 2 with fully overlapping coverage zones, Strategy 3 with alternating redundancy between repeater pairs, and Strategy 4 with full duplication of overlapping coverage. A continuous-time Markov modeling approach is employed to quantify communication availability under varying traffic loads and failure conditions. The strategies are assessed based on infrastructure requirements, reliability performance, and suitability for segmented and non-linear corridor geometries. The results show that increasing redundancy significantly improves reliability: for example, channel unavailability drops from 35% under Strategy 1 (no redundancy) to less than 0.5% under Strategy 4 (full duplication). Strategy 3 achieves a balanced performance, maintaining unavailability below 1% with approximately 50% fewer resources than Strategy 4. A case study in the Greenline district of Astana, Kazakhstan, illustrates the practical application of the framework, demonstrating how hybrid deployment strategies can address different operational and environmental demands. The results show that increasing redundancy significantly enhances availability, with Strategy 3 offering the most efficient balance between reliability and resource use. The proposed methodology provides a scalable foundation for designing resilient UAV communication systems to support future urban airspace operations.https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/9/6/401urban air mobilityunmanned aerial vehiclesair corridorradio repeaterscommunication reliabilitycommunication infrastructure |
| spellingShingle | Igor Kabashkin Duman Iskakov Roman Topilskiy Gulnar Tlepiyeva Timur Sultanov Zura Sansyzbayeva Communication Infrastructure Design for Reliable UAV Operations in Air Mobility Corridors Drones urban air mobility unmanned aerial vehicles air corridor radio repeaters communication reliability communication infrastructure |
| title | Communication Infrastructure Design for Reliable UAV Operations in Air Mobility Corridors |
| title_full | Communication Infrastructure Design for Reliable UAV Operations in Air Mobility Corridors |
| title_fullStr | Communication Infrastructure Design for Reliable UAV Operations in Air Mobility Corridors |
| title_full_unstemmed | Communication Infrastructure Design for Reliable UAV Operations in Air Mobility Corridors |
| title_short | Communication Infrastructure Design for Reliable UAV Operations in Air Mobility Corridors |
| title_sort | communication infrastructure design for reliable uav operations in air mobility corridors |
| topic | urban air mobility unmanned aerial vehicles air corridor radio repeaters communication reliability communication infrastructure |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/9/6/401 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT igorkabashkin communicationinfrastructuredesignforreliableuavoperationsinairmobilitycorridors AT dumaniskakov communicationinfrastructuredesignforreliableuavoperationsinairmobilitycorridors AT romantopilskiy communicationinfrastructuredesignforreliableuavoperationsinairmobilitycorridors AT gulnartlepiyeva communicationinfrastructuredesignforreliableuavoperationsinairmobilitycorridors AT timursultanov communicationinfrastructuredesignforreliableuavoperationsinairmobilitycorridors AT zurasansyzbayeva communicationinfrastructuredesignforreliableuavoperationsinairmobilitycorridors |