Joint Sensing, Control, and Communication Scheduling for THz Beam Alignment in Cellular Connected UAV Networks (Invited Paper)

Terahertz (THz) communications are promising to enable backhaul data transmission in cellular connected unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks by providing ultra-high transmission data rate. In such networks, connected autonomous UAVs (CA-UAV) have the potential to build air-ground networks and achieve seamless wide-area coverage with little or no human assistance. With the usage of high frequency (i.e., THz), radio/radar sensing function is expected to be achieved in wireless networks, which can be used to track motion control of UAV for beam tracking in THz communications. However, it is extremely difficult to jointly design sensing, communication, and motion control since they have been developing in relatively parallel with limited intersections. In this paper, we propose a new joint scheduling method of sensing, communication, and control for beam alignment in THz communications enabled CA-UAV networks to support data transmission of the backhaul from UAV to the ground base station (BS). In the proposed method, we provide a new definition from motion control perspective, i.e., state-to-noise-ratio, which links the relationship among sensing, motion control of CA-UAV, and data rate determined by beam alignment in THz communications. Then, a closed-form expression is obtained for data rate triggered sensing-control pattern activation design, where both data rate requirement in THz communications and motion control performance of UAV are guaranteed. Simulation results show remarkable performance of the proposed method.