Path Loss characteristics for UAV-to-Ground Wireless Channels

UAVs have been proposed in the context of 5G cellular networks to act as flying basestations or relays in order to offer wireless services to underserved areas or support problematic cases such as flash crowd situations. This paper provides path loss characteristics for the air-to-ground radio channel using data produced with deterministic propagation modeling for an urban operational scenario. The presented analysis separates LOS and NLOS conditions and calculates the path loss exponent for different UAV heights, as well as the std of the distance-dependent path loss model and the ray tracing predictions.