Evaluating the Quality of Experience Performance Metric for UAV-Based Networks

Area of Science:

• Wireless communication networks
• Aerial communication systems

Background:

• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) offer potential for enhancing cellular network coverage.
• Assessing the impact of UAV integration on user Quality of Experience (QoE) is crucial.
• Existing research often lacks detailed emulation of the radio channel between UAVs and network infrastructure.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of UAV-assisted cells in a single-user scenario.
• To quantify the Quality of Experience (QoE) as a function of packet loss ratio.
• To develop an analytical model for estimating scenario usage constraints.

Main Methods:

• Development and testing of a two-block radio-channel emulation system.
• Emulation of separate connections: User Equipment (UE) to UAV, and UAV to Base Station (BS).
• Creation of an analytical model to estimate scenario usage constraints.

Main Results:

• The developed radio-channel emulation system accurately reflects performance under various conditions.
• The analytical model provides insights into the constraints of UAV-assisted cell deployment.
• Cell coverage enhancement was demonstrated in the single-user scenario.

Conclusions:

• UAV-assisted cells can effectively extend cellular coverage.
• The integration of UAVs into cellular networks has a minimal negative impact on user QoE.
• The developed emulation system and analytical model are valuable tools for future research and deployment planning.