Ensuring Reliable Communication for UAV-Assisted Low-Power Wireless Network in Harsh Environments With Interference

Efficient and reliable data collection is crucial for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) assisted low-power wireless networks. However, existing works on UAV-assisted data collection seldom consider how to ensure reliable communication. Experimental studies have shown that changes in UAV's flight direction and potential interference in surrounding environments will impact the range of reliable communication. In light of this, this paper formulates the packet reception ratio (PRR) under harsh environments with interference, by considering the impact of UAV movement on low-power links and factors affecting the relationship between physical layer parameters and PRR. Then, a three-dimensional (3D) spatial partition model for UAV assisted low-power wireless networks is proposed. Experimental results show that compared with existing models, the proposed one reduces the PRR estimation error by up to 77.58%. The proposed spatial partition model accurately distinguishes the connected region, transitional region, and disconnected region, with an accuracy rate exceeding 95% under different flight modes. To verify the practicality of the proposed spatial partition model, its application for UAV-assisted data collection is evaluated through simulations. The results show that compared with existing models, the proposed one can effectively improve the efficiency of data collection.