Elevating the future of mobility: UAV-enabled Intelligent Transportation Systems

TL;DR

This paper elevates ITS to three dimensions by integrating UAV-based Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) to address 2D ITS limitations. It introduces a UAV-enabled framework with Aerial Base Stations (ABSs) and compares them to Terrestrial Base Stations (TBS) using stochastic geometry models, finding ABSs provide larger coverage and higher SNR distributions suitable for high-throughput ITS. The work enumerates UAV use cases ranging from cargo delivery and air taxis to emergency response, law enforcement, traffic monitoring, and infrastructure inspection, highlighting ABSs as a superior solution for urban connectivity. It also discusses practical challenges and future directions, including altitude optimization, beamforming strategies, and regulatory collaboration to enable safe, scalable deployment of 3D ITS.

Abstract

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) increasingly rely on connectivity for efficient traffic management and enhanced user experience. The existing ITS solutions operate mainly within a 2D domain, thus missing the potential benefits of aerial platforms. This paper envisions 3D ITS by integrating aerial platforms, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), to simultaneously improve network coverage and support multi-modal transportation, including Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). Using stochastic models, we investigate how UAV-based Aerial Base Stations (ABSs) can address the limitations of traditional Terrestrial Base Stations (TBSs) by offering superior coverage, particularly in urban environments. Our results demonstrate that ABSs have 106.67% more coverage area than TBS, higher Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) distribution, and are suitable for high-throughput ITS applications.

Figures (8)

• Figure 1: UAV use cases in ITS: a) a UAV is providing early medication by skipping traffic congestion, b) a UAV is chasing a suspect and sending information to the police, c) a UAV is acting as ABS to provide connectivity in road vicinity.
• Figure 2: Simulation scenario where red square represents BS locations with intensity $\lambda_\chi$, blue lines are road with intensity $\lambda_{\text{road}}$, and black circles are vehicles on the road.
• Figure 3: $PL$ distribution for ABS and TBS.
• Figure 4: $\mathcal{P}_{Cov}$ for ABS/TBS against varying $\lambda_\chi$ and $h_{\text{ABS}}$.
• Figure 5: $A_{cov}$ vs. varying $\gamma$.