Capacity Analysis of UAV Communications Under the Non-Ideal Transceiver Effects

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have emerged as promising solutions to overcome the challenges that face traditional terrestrial communication. Not only are they reliable and cost-effective, but they can also be considered green strategies with inherent benefits such as diversity, flexibility, and altitude adaptability. This work analyses the effects of hardware impairments (HWIs) on the UAVs and the ground station (GS) communication system where the UAV moves in a random three-dimensional trajectory. In this regard, the average ergodic capacity of the system is derived by considering the Rician fading channel conditions between the UAV and the GS. We consider the average over a random three-dimensional trajectory movement including the angle of arrival and the distance between the UAV and the GS. We also provide an asymptotic analysis when the transmit power of the UAV and the number of GS antennas become exceptionally large. Extensive MATLAB simulations are provided to validate the gained results.