Joint Trajectory and Power Optimization for UAV Relay Networks

TLDR

The study examines UAV relay networks where the UAV acts as an amplify‑and‑forward relay. The goal is to jointly optimize UAV trajectory, UAV transmit power, and mobile device power to minimize outage probability. The authors derive an analytical outage‑probability expression and propose a closed‑form, low‑complexity joint trajectory‑power control solution to solve the non‑convex optimization. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed joint design achieves a markedly lower outage probability than fixed‑power relays and circular UAV trajectories.

Abstract

In this letter, we consider an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) relay network, where the UAV works as an amplify-and-forward relay. We optimize the trajectory of UAV, the transmit power of UAV, and the mobile device by minimizing the outage probability of this relay network. The analytical expression of outage probability is derived first. A closed-form low-complexity solution with joint trajectory design and power control is proposed to solve this non-convex problem. Simulation results show that the outage probability of the proposed solution is significantly lower than that of the fixed power relay and circle trajectory for the UAV relay.