Energy-Aware Design of UAV-Mounted RIS Networks for IoT Data Collection

Data collection in massive Internet of Things networks requires novel and flexible methods. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are foreseen as a means to collect data rapidly even in remote areas without static telecommunication infrastructure. In this direction, UAV-mounted reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) aid in reducing the hardware requirements and signal processing complexity at the UAV side, while increasing the network’s energy efficiency and coverage. Hence, in this paper, we propose the utilization of a UAV-mounted RIS for data collection and study the coverage probability in such networks. Additionally, we propose a novel medium access control protocol based on slotted ALOHA and Code Combining to handle the communication of multiple sensors. To account for the crucial energy issue in UAVs, we devise an energy model that considers both the UAV and the RIS weight, as well as the environmental conditions and the UAV’s velocity. Finally, we characterize the performance of the proposed data collection scheme by analyzing the average throughput and the average collected data per flight, while providing useful insights for the design of such networks.