Channel Model for Airborne Networks

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide a suitable aerial platform for various wireless network applications that require reliable and ubiquitous communication. Therefore, depending on the application, UAV‐based wireless nodes can operate either as aerial user equipment (UE) or as aerial base station (BS). In both cases, accurate channel models are necessary for evaluating the performance of and designing an air‐to‐ground (AG) communication link. This work provides an overview of the AG propagation models and discusses some of the technical challenges in the applicability of UAV communications.