Base Station Deployment for Path-Aware UAV Communications

In this study, we consider a UAV communication system characterized by a predefined path. This paper introduces a path model consisting of consecutive path points and establishes performance metrics at the path level. The defined metrics include the average achievable rate for the path and the number of handovers occurring along the trajectory. Considering that these metrics depend on the positions of base stations, our goal is to determine the placement of base stations that maximizes the average achievable rate within a specified handover number. To achieve this objective, an algorithm is proposed to find optimal locations for base stations. This algorithm adopts a strategy of dividing regions and alternately exploring the positions of base stations to determine their optimal locations. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm produces performance that closely approximates optimal results under the weak constraint of handover.