Joint Trajectory and Power Optimization for Dynamic Spectrum Control-Assisted Secure UAV Communications
Abstract
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) play a crucial role in modern communication systems owing to their high mobility and broad coverage. However, due to the inherent open nature of the wireless channels, UAV-to-ground links are facing significant security threats from eavesdroppers and malicious jammers. To address these challenges, we propose a dynamic spectrum control (DSC) scheme integrating joint UAV trajectory and transmit power optimization to enhance UAV communication security in this paper. This scheme divides transmission channels from time and frequency dimensions and intelligently generates secure decision sequences using cryptographic principles based on real-time channel states, enabling transmissions for legitimate users without intra-cell interference. Based on a rapid-flooding time synchronization protocol, we analyze inter-cell collision probability (CP) and formulate an optimization problem for the secrecy rate. To further enhance security, we conduct a joint UAV trajectory and transmit power optimization. Through the successive convex approximation (SCA) method, we transform the non-convex optimization problem into a tractable convex form, obtaining a suboptimal solution. Simulations demonstrate that our proposed scheme significantly enhances security compared to conventional UAV communication methods.
Fields of Study & Subjects
UAV Applications and Optimization
Air Traffic Management and Optimization
Satellite Communication Systems
Publication details
- Journal / source
- IEEE Transactions on Communications
- Publisher
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
- Volume
- 74
- Pages
- 9408–9421
- Publication date
- 1 January 2026