Energy Consumption Optimization for UAV Base Stations With Wind Compensation

In this letter, an energy-efficient algorithm for positioning of unmanned aerial vehicle-based base stations (UAV-BSs) is presented. The objective is to reduce the propulsion power consumption of UAV-BSs while not compromising the communication capacity of user equipments (UEs). As a significant step beyond state-of-the-art, we consider an effect of wind. To this end, we develop a new model of a propulsion energy consumption for the UAV-BSs reflecting an impact of wind. Furthermore, we propose a novel algorithm based on an ensemble learning optimizing the 3D trajectory of UAV-BSs over time in realistic environment with wind to reduce the propulsion energy consumption. The results show that the proposed approach reduces the propulsion energy consumption of UAV-BSs by up to 47% with only a negligible degradation in the UEs capacity compared to state-of-the-art works.