A Survey of Channel Modeling for UAV Communications

TLDR

UAVs are increasingly used for rapid deployment in civil and military contexts, yet their unique, non‑stationary channel characteristics—such as spatial and temporal variations and unstudied airframe shadowing—necessitate accurate modeling for performance optimization. This survey reviews measurement methods for UAV channel modeling with low‑altitude platforms and examines current channel characterization efforts. The authors analyze contemporary UAV channel modeling approaches and identify future research challenges.

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have attracted great interest in rapid deployment for both civil and military applications. UAV communication has its own distinctive channel characteristics compared to the widely used cellular or satellite systems. Accurate channel characterization is crucial for the performance optimization and design of efficient UAV communication. However, several challenges exist in UAV channel modeling. For example, the propagation characteristics of UAV channels are under explored for spatial and temporal variations in non-stationary channels. Additionally, airframe shadowing has not yet been investigated for small size rotary UAVs. This paper provides an extensive survey of the measurement methods proposed for UAV channel modeling that use low altitude platforms and discusses various channel characterization efforts. We also review from a contemporary perspective of UAV channel modeling approaches, and outline future research challenges in this domain.