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Efficient UAVs Deployment and Resource Allocation in UAV-Relay Assisted Public Safety Networks for Video Transmission

Naveed Khan, Ayaz Ahmad, Abdul Wakeel, Zeeshan Kaleem, Bushra Rashid, Waqas Khalid

TL;DR

This work tackles public safety communications in disaster scenarios where ground base stations fail by deploying a two-UAV PSCN (an observation UAV and a relay UAV) to collect uplink video from AGUs and forward it to a GBS. It proposes a joint optimization framework over UAV placements, transmit powers, and bandwidth allocation to maximize the average video streaming utility $\overline{S}$ under outage constraint $\rho$ and information-causality requirements, using a slack variable and a two-stage iterative algorithm based on block coordinate descent and successive convex approximation. The approach derives outage-aware rate expressions, formulates the non-convex problem, and solves two convex subproblems (power/bandwidth allocation and UAV placement) alternately, with theoretical convergence guarantees. Simulation results in a $500\times500$ m$^2$ area show marked performance gains over baselines, demonstrating the method’s potential for rapid, resource-efficient PSCN deployment in disaster-affected regions.

Abstract

Wireless communication highly depends on the cellular ground base station (GBS). A failure of the cellular GBS, fully or partially, during natural or man-made disasters creates a communication gap in the disaster-affected areas. In such situations, public safety communication (PSC) can significantly save the national infrastructure, property, and lives. Throughout emergencies, the PSC can provide mission-critical communication and video transmission services in the affected area. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as flying base stations (UAV-BSs) are particularly suitable for PSC services as they are flexible, mobile, and easily deployable. This manuscript considers a multi-UAV-assisted PSC network with an observational UAV receiving videos from the affected area's ground users (AGUs) and transmitting them to the nearby GBS via a relay UAV. The objective of the proposed study is to maximize the average utility of the video streams generated by the AGUs upon reaching the GBS. This is achieved by optimizing the positions of the observational and relay UAVs, as well as the distribution of communication resources, such as bandwidth, and transmit power, while satisfying the system-designed constraints, such as transmission rate, rate outage probability, transmit power budget, and available bandwidth. To this end, a joint UAVs placement and resource allocation problem is mathematically formulated. The proposed problem poses a significant challenge for a solution. Considering the block coordinate descent and successive convex approximation techniques, an efficient iterative algorithm is proposed. Finally, simulation results are provided which show that our proposed approach outperforms the existing methods.

Efficient UAVs Deployment and Resource Allocation in UAV-Relay Assisted Public Safety Networks for Video Transmission

TL;DR

This work tackles public safety communications in disaster scenarios where ground base stations fail by deploying a two-UAV PSCN (an observation UAV and a relay UAV) to collect uplink video from AGUs and forward it to a GBS. It proposes a joint optimization framework over UAV placements, transmit powers, and bandwidth allocation to maximize the average video streaming utility under outage constraint and information-causality requirements, using a slack variable and a two-stage iterative algorithm based on block coordinate descent and successive convex approximation. The approach derives outage-aware rate expressions, formulates the non-convex problem, and solves two convex subproblems (power/bandwidth allocation and UAV placement) alternately, with theoretical convergence guarantees. Simulation results in a m area show marked performance gains over baselines, demonstrating the method’s potential for rapid, resource-efficient PSCN deployment in disaster-affected regions.

Abstract

Wireless communication highly depends on the cellular ground base station (GBS). A failure of the cellular GBS, fully or partially, during natural or man-made disasters creates a communication gap in the disaster-affected areas. In such situations, public safety communication (PSC) can significantly save the national infrastructure, property, and lives. Throughout emergencies, the PSC can provide mission-critical communication and video transmission services in the affected area. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as flying base stations (UAV-BSs) are particularly suitable for PSC services as they are flexible, mobile, and easily deployable. This manuscript considers a multi-UAV-assisted PSC network with an observational UAV receiving videos from the affected area's ground users (AGUs) and transmitting them to the nearby GBS via a relay UAV. The objective of the proposed study is to maximize the average utility of the video streams generated by the AGUs upon reaching the GBS. This is achieved by optimizing the positions of the observational and relay UAVs, as well as the distribution of communication resources, such as bandwidth, and transmit power, while satisfying the system-designed constraints, such as transmission rate, rate outage probability, transmit power budget, and available bandwidth. To this end, a joint UAVs placement and resource allocation problem is mathematically formulated. The proposed problem poses a significant challenge for a solution. Considering the block coordinate descent and successive convex approximation techniques, an efficient iterative algorithm is proposed. Finally, simulation results are provided which show that our proposed approach outperforms the existing methods.
Paper Structure (15 sections, 37 equations, 7 figures, 2 tables, 1 algorithm)

This paper contains 15 sections, 37 equations, 7 figures, 2 tables, 1 algorithm.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. UAV Placement and Recourse Allocation
  4. UAV Deployment as a Relay
  5. Contributions
  6. System model and problem formulation
  7. System model
  8. Channel model
  9. Video streaming model
  10. Problem formulation
  11. Proposed solution
  12. Power ($\mathcal{P}$) and bandwidth ($\mathcal{X}$) allocation with fixed UAVs location
  13. Observation and relay UAV position ($\mathcal{Q}$) optimization with fixed power and bandwidth
  14. Simulation Results
  15. Conclusion

Figures (7)

  • Figure 1: System overview: Overall geographical scenario
  • Figure 2: Proposed iterative algorithm-1 convergence curve
  • Figure 3: Average streaming utility vs the number of AGUs
  • Figure 4: Average Steaming Utility vs $P_u^{max}$, $P_o^{max}$ and $P_r^{max}$
  • Figure 5: Average streaming utility vs $\rho$
  • ...and 2 more figures