UAV Trajectory Optimization for Data Offloading at the Edge of Multiple Cells

• Published in: IEEE transactions on vehicular technology Vol. 67; no. 7; pp. 6732 - 6736
• Main Authors: Cheng, Fen, Zhang, Shun, Li, Zan, Chen, Yunfei, Zhao, Nan, Yu, F. Richard, Leung, Victor C. M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.07.2018; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Computer simulation; Data offloading; Electronic mail; Interference; interference avoidance; Iterative algorithms; Military technology; Radio equipment; Scheduling; Trajectory optimization; unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); Unmanned aerial vehicles; Wireless networks
• ISSN: 0018-9545; 1939-9359
• DOI: 10.1109/TVT.2018.2811942

In future mobile networks, it is difficult for static base stations (BSs) to support the rapidly increasing data services, especially for cell-edge users. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a promising method that can assist BSs to offload the data traffic, due to its high mobility and flexibility. In this correspondence, we focus on the UAV trajectory at the edges of three adjacent cells to offload traffic for BSs. In the proposed scheme, the sum rate of UAV-served edge users is maximized subject to the rate requirements for all the users, by optimizing the UAV trajectory in each flying cycle. The optimization is a mixed-integer nonconvex problem, which is difficult to solve. Thus, it is transformed into two convex problems, and an iterative algorithm is proposed to solve it by optimizing the UAV trajectory and edge user scheduling alternately. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.