Energy Efficiency Maximization in UAV-Assisted Intelligent Autonomous Transport System for 6G Networks With Energy Harvesting

The unmanned aerial vehicle-assisted 6G supported intelligent transportation systems (UAV-assisted 6G-ITS) have great potential to make transportation systems efficient, smart, and sustainable. However, when connected and autonomous vehicles communicate with UAVs, it can lead to issues such as energy consumption and overlapping interference, which can affect system performance. Therefore, this paper proposes an interference tolerance-based energy harvesting (EH) resource allocation (IT-EHRA) strategy, aiming to improve the energy efficiency (EE) of UAV-assisted 6G-ITS and mitigate the overlapping interference. Firstly, we established an interference hypergraph model and analyzed the types and relationships of interference in the network. Based on this model, an interference tolerance method was designed to alleviate overlapping interference. Then, an EH optimization model with imperfect channel state information (CSI) is proposed based on the interference model, aiming to maximize the network EE and reduce energy consumption. Finally, we adopt the IT-EHRA algorithm to reduce the impact of imperfect CSI and use duality theory to obtain the optimal solution, thereby achieving maximum network EE. Simulation results show that the algorithm effectively ensures the EE requirements of the network, improves the throughput of the network, and promotes the sustainable development of the network.