Mmwave-based Beamforming for Capacity Maximization in UAV-Aided Maritime Communication Networks

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-aided maritime communication network (MCN) offers extended coverage with flexible deployment and low cost. However, it is puzzled by low throughput and transmission capacity via limited HF/VHF/UHF bands used in marine. The millimeter wave (mmWave) communication offers large bandwidth and high capacity in 5G mobile communication, as such, it is adopted in UAV-to-ship backhaul link of MCNs in this paper in order to improve network performance. To this end, an mmWave-based UAV-aided MCN consisting of signal propagation features and a modified mm Wave channel model is characterized firstly. Then, an optimization problem for backhaul capacity maximization is formulated where the multi-antennas beamforming (BF) technique is integrated with mm Wave communication. Finally, a normalized least mean square based adaptive beamforming algorithm for the problem is proposed and the simulation results verify the accuracy of the channel model and the capacity enhancement by mmWave beamforming.