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A Survey on Channel Sounding Technologies and Measurements for UAV-Assisted Communications

Mao, Kai ; Zhu, Qiuming ; Wang, Cheng Xiang ; Ye, Xuchao ; Gomez-Ponce, Jorge ; Cai, Xuesong LU ; Miao, Yang ; Cui, Zhuangzhuang ; Wu, Qihui and Fan, Wei (2024) In IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement 73.
Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been widely used in both military and civilian applications, where a stable communication link is vital for safe flight control and robust data transmission. To develop a reliable UAV communication system, it is necessary to deeply understand the UAV channel characteristics and establish accurate channel models. Channel sounding is the most effective way to obtain realistic channel characteristics and validate the theoretical channel model. However, the studies on UAV channel sounding are still insufficient in terms of system design and data processing due to the complexity of developing a UAV channel sounder. Different from the terrestrial channel sounders, the implementation of a UAV channel... (More)

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been widely used in both military and civilian applications, where a stable communication link is vital for safe flight control and robust data transmission. To develop a reliable UAV communication system, it is necessary to deeply understand the UAV channel characteristics and establish accurate channel models. Channel sounding is the most effective way to obtain realistic channel characteristics and validate the theoretical channel model. However, the studies on UAV channel sounding are still insufficient in terms of system design and data processing due to the complexity of developing a UAV channel sounder. Different from the terrestrial channel sounders, the implementation of a UAV channel sounder is tortured by the limited battery life and payload capacity of the UAV platform. The sounding scheme and data postprocessing also need to be specially designed for highly dynamic UAV channels. So far, most existing survey studies on UAV channels focus on modeling methodology and model presentation. To fill this gap, this article provides a comprehensive survey on the design of the UAV channel sounder, in terms of the hardware scheme, sounding signal, time synchronization, calibration, and data postprocessing. Current issues and potential research topics behind existing sounding technologies and measurement campaigns are analyzed. Moreover, future challenges and open issues are also discussed.

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author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Channel sounder, channel sounding, sounding schemes, UAV propagation channel, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
in
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement
volume
73
article number
8004624
publisher
IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
external identifiers
  • scopus:85200216555
ISSN
0018-9456
DOI
10.1109/TIM.2024.3436128
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
bb0553f6-dee5-487e-83ee-7c96734a9d5c
date added to LUP
2024-11-11 13:46:20
date last changed
2025-06-10 18:52:28
@article{bb0553f6-dee5-487e-83ee-7c96734a9d5c,
  abstract     = {{<p>Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been widely used in both military and civilian applications, where a stable communication link is vital for safe flight control and robust data transmission. To develop a reliable UAV communication system, it is necessary to deeply understand the UAV channel characteristics and establish accurate channel models. Channel sounding is the most effective way to obtain realistic channel characteristics and validate the theoretical channel model. However, the studies on UAV channel sounding are still insufficient in terms of system design and data processing due to the complexity of developing a UAV channel sounder. Different from the terrestrial channel sounders, the implementation of a UAV channel sounder is tortured by the limited battery life and payload capacity of the UAV platform. The sounding scheme and data postprocessing also need to be specially designed for highly dynamic UAV channels. So far, most existing survey studies on UAV channels focus on modeling methodology and model presentation. To fill this gap, this article provides a comprehensive survey on the design of the UAV channel sounder, in terms of the hardware scheme, sounding signal, time synchronization, calibration, and data postprocessing. Current issues and potential research topics behind existing sounding technologies and measurement campaigns are analyzed. Moreover, future challenges and open issues are also discussed.</p>}},
  author       = {{Mao, Kai and Zhu, Qiuming and Wang, Cheng Xiang and Ye, Xuchao and Gomez-Ponce, Jorge and Cai, Xuesong and Miao, Yang and Cui, Zhuangzhuang and Wu, Qihui and Fan, Wei}},
  issn         = {{0018-9456}},
  keywords     = {{Channel sounder; channel sounding; sounding schemes; UAV propagation channel; unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.}},
  series       = {{IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement}},
  title        = {{A Survey on Channel Sounding Technologies and Measurements for UAV-Assisted Communications}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TIM.2024.3436128}},
  doi          = {{10.1109/TIM.2024.3436128}},
  volume       = {{73}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}