arXiv subjects

Nesrine Cherif

Publications and source records attributed to Nesrine Cherif.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Merits of Serving UAVs via Terrestrial Networks: A Vertical Antenna Radiation Study

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly used in a plethora of applications such as shipping, surveillance, and search-and-rescue. For UAVs to operate safely, reliable cellular connectivity is essential. Utilizing the terrestrial networks for aerial connectivity has been proposed, but the 3D radiation pattern of base station antennas significantly affects the performance of aerial links.. To address this, we evaluate the coverage probability of cellular-connected UAVs, considering vertical antenna gain, by leveraging tools from stochastic geometry. We also analyze how the UAV hovering height, tilt angle and 3D antenna beamwidth influence the reliability of the communication link. Our results show that a down-tiled antenna does not only improve the connectivity of terrestrial users but also its cellularconnected UAVs counterpart. Moreover, the coverage probability of the UAV-UE becomes saturated at large down-tilt angles at the TBSs due to the antenna sidelobe gain at the serving and interfering TBSs. We also found that the significant increase of the vertical antenna beamwidth improves the UAV user coverage probability especially at relatively low hovering altitudes thanks to the increase of the desired signal strength compared to the interference power.

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arXiv2023

RL-Based Cargo-UAV Trajectory Planning and Cell Association for Minimum Handoffs, Disconnectivity, and Energy Consumption

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a promising technology for last-mile cargo delivery. However, the limited on-board battery capacity, cellular unreliability, and frequent handoffs in the airspace are the main obstacles to unleash its full potential. Given that existing cellular networks were primarily designed to service ground users, re-utilizing the same architecture for highly mobile aerial users, e.g., cargo-UAVs, is deemed challenging. Indeed, to ensure a safe delivery using cargo-UAVs, it is crucial to utilize the available energy efficiently, while guaranteeing reliable connectivity for command-and-control and avoiding frequent handoff. To achieve this goal, we propose a novel approach for joint cargo-UAV trajectory planning and cell association. Specifically, we formulate the cargo-UAV mission as a multi-objective problem aiming to 1) minimize energy consumption, 2) reduce handoff events, and 3) guarantee cellular reliability along the trajectory. We leverage reinforcement learning (RL) to jointly optimize the cargo-UAV's trajectory and cell association. Simulation results demonstrate a performance improvement of our proposed method, in terms of handoffs, disconnectivity, and energy consumption, compared to benchmarks.

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arXiv2022

iTUAVs: Intermittently Tethered UAVs for Future Wireless Networks

We propose the intermittently tethered unmanned aerial vehicle (iTUAV) as a tradeoff between the power availability of a tethered UAV (TUAV) and the flexibility of an untethered UAV. An iTUAV can provide cellular connectivity while being temporarily tethered to the most adequate ground anchor. Also, it can flexibly detach from one anchor, travel, then attach to another one to maintain/improve the coverage quality for mobile users. Hence, we discuss here the existing UAV-based cellular networking technologies, followed by a detailed description of the iTUAV system, its components, and mode of operation. Subsequently, we present a comparative study of the existing and proposed systems highlighting the differences in key features such as mobility and energy. To emphasize the potential of iTUAV systems, we conduct a case study, evaluate the iTUAV performance, and compare it to benchmarks. Obtained results show that with only 10 anchors in the area, the iTUAV system can serve up to 90% of the users covered by the untethered UAV swapping system. Moreover, results from a small case study prove that the iTUAV allows to balance performance/cost and can be implemented realistically. For instance, when user locations are clustered, with only 2 active iTUAVs and 4 anchors, achieved performance is superior to that of the system with 3 TUAVs, while when considering a single UAV on a 100 minutes event, a system with only 6 anchors outperforms the untethered UAV as it combines location flexibility with increased mission time.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2021

Disconnectivity-Aware Energy-Efficient Cargo-UAV Trajectory Planning with Minimum Handoffs

On-board battery consumption, cellular disconnectivity, and frequent handoff are key challenges for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based delivery missions, a.k.a., cargo-UAV. Indeed, with the introduction of UAV technology into cargo shipping and logistics, designing energy-efficient paths becomes a serious issue for the next retail industry transformation. Typically, the latter has to guarantee uninterrupted or slightly interrupted cellular connectivity for the UAV's command and control through a small number of handoffs. In this paper, we formulate the trajectory planning as a multi-objective problem aiming to minimize both the UAV's energy consumption and the handoff rate, constrained by the UAV battery size and disconnectivity rate. Due to the problem's complexity, we propose a dynamic programming based solution. Through simulations, we demonstrate the efficiency of our approach in providing optimized UAV trajectories. Also, the impact of several parameters, such as the cargo-UAV altitude, disconnectivity rate, and type of environment, are investigated. The obtained results allow to draw recommendations and guidelines for cargo-UAV operations.

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arXiv2021

3D Aerial Highway: The Key Enabler of the Retail Industry Transformation

The retail industry is already facing an inevitable transformation worldwide, and with the current pandemic situation, it is even accelerating. Indeed, consumer habits are shifting from brick-and-mortar stores to online shopping. The bottleneck in the end-to-end online shopping experience remains the efficient and quick delivery of goods to consumers. In this context, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology is seen as a potential solution to address cargo delivery issues. Hence, the number of cargo-UAVs is expected to skyrocket in the next few decades and the airspace to become densely crowded. To successfully deploy UAVs for mass cargo delivery, seamless and reliable cellular connectivity for highly mobile UAVs is required. There is an urgent need for organized and connected routes in the sky. Like highways for cargo trucks, 3D routes in the airspace should be designed for cargo-UAVs to fulfill their operations safely and efficiently. We refer to these routes as 3D aerial highway. In this paper, we thoroughly investigate the feasibility of the aerial highways paradigm. First, we discuss the motivations and concerns of the aerial highway paradigm. Then, we present our vision of the 3D aerial highway framework. Finally, we present related connectivity issues and their potential solutions.

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arXiv2020

Downlink Coverage and Rate Analysis of an Aerial User in Vertical Heterogeneous Networks (VHetNets)

In this paper, we analyze the downlink coverage probability and rate of an aerial user in vertical HetNets (VHetNets) comprising aerial base stations (aerial-BSs) and terrestrial-BSs. The locations of terrestrial-BSs are modeled as an infinite 2-D Poisson Point Process (PPP), while the locations of aerial-BSs are modeled as a finite 2-D Binomial Point Process (BPP). Our cellular-to-air (C2A) channel model incorporates line-of-sight (LoS) and non-LoS transmissions between terrestrial-BSs and a typical aerial user, while we assume LoS transmissions for all aerial links. We assume that the aerial user is associated with an aerial-BS or terrestrial-BS that provides the strongest average received power. Using stochastic geometry, we derive exact and approximate expressions of the coverage probability and rate in terms of interference power's Laplace transform. The expressions are simplified assuming only LoS transmissions for the C2A channels. This enables easy-to-compute equations with good accuracy at elevated aerial user heights. We find that aerial users hovering at low altitudes tend to connect to aerial-BSs in denser terrestrial environments. Employing directive beamforming at aerial-BSs guarantees an acceptable performance at the aerial user by reducing interference signals received from the aerial-BSs. In denser terrestrial networks, the performance at the aerial user degrades substantially despite beamforming.

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arXiv2020

On the Optimal 3D Placement of a UAV Base Station for Maximal Coverage of UAV Users

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be users that support new applications, or be communication access points that serve terrestrial and/or aerial users. In this paper, we focus on the connectivity problem of aerial users when they are exclusively served by aerial base stations (BS), i.e., UAVBSs. Specifically, the 3D placement problem of a directional antenna equipped UAV-BS, aiming to maximize the number of covered aerial users under a spectrum sharing policy with terrestrial networks, is investigated. Given a known spectrum sharing policy between the aerial and terrestrial networks, we propose a 3D placement algorithm that achieves optimality. Simulation results show the performance of our approach, in terms of number of covered aerial users, for different configurations and parameters, such as the spectrum sharing policy, antenna beamwidth, transmit power, and aerial users density. These results represent novel guidelines for exclusive aerial networks deployment and applications, distinctively for orthogonal and non-orthogonal spectrum sharing policies with terrestrial networks.

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arXiv2018

Mixed Málaga-$\mathcal{M}$ and Generalized-$\cal K$ Dual-Hop FSO/RF Systems with Interference

This paper investigates the impact of radio frequency (RF) cochannel interference (CCI) on the performance of dual-hop free-space optics (FSO)/RF relay networks. The considered FSO/RF system operates over mixed Málaga-$\mathcal{M}$/composite fading/shadowing generalized-$\cal K$ ($\cal GK$) channels with pointing errors. The {\rm H}-transform theory, wherein integral transforms involve Fox's {\rm H}-functions as kernels, is embodied into a unifying performance analysis framework that encompasses closed-form expressions for the outage probability, the average bit error rate (BER), and the ergodic capacity. By virtue of some {\rm H}-transform asymptotic expansions, the high signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) analysis culminates in easy-to-compute expressions for the outage probability and BER.

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arXiv2017

Relay-Assisted Mixed FSO/RF Systems over Málaga-$\mathcal{M}$ and $κ$-$μ$ Shadowed Fading Channels

This letter presents a unified analytical framework for relay-assisted mixed FSO/RF transmission. In addition to accounting for different FSO detection techniques, the mathematical model offers a twofold unification of mixed FSO/RF systems by considering mixed Málaga-$\mathcal{M}$/$κ$-$μ$ shadowed fading, which includes as special cases nearly all linear turbulence/fading models adopted in the open literature.

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