Energy Consumption in Wireless Systems Equipped with RES, UAVs, and IRSs

TL;DR

The paper tackles energy sustainability for UAV-based wireless base stations by integrating Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and Intelligent Reconfigurable Surfaces (IRS) to extend off-grid operation. It develops detailed energy consumption models for both fixed-wing and multirotor UAVs and energy generation models for photovoltaic (PV) and wind turbine (WT) sources, including IRS/MIMO power components and MMSE-based processing assumptions. Using real weather data from Poznań across four seasons, it simulates four scenarios—no RES, PV-only, WT-only, and both RES—for both UAV types to analyze energy balance and harvesting effectiveness. The results provide actionable insights for planning UAV-based networks with IRS and RES integration, highlighting how seasonality and payload affect energy budgets and how RES can mitigate grid dependency.

Abstract

The paper considers the characteristics of the energy budget for mobile base stations (BSs) in the form of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with Radio Frequency (RF) transceivers, Intelligent Reconfigurable Surfaces (IRSs), and Renewable Energy Sources (RESs). The obtained results highlight the benefits and challenges related to using the aforementioned mobile base stations from the energy side. The research cases took into account two types of UAV devices - multirotor and fixed-wing (airplane-like).

Figures (3)

• Figure 1: Power curve function of wind turbine (based on 16).
• Figure 2: Energy consumption character. for multirotor and fixed-wing UAVs.
• Figure 3: Energy generation characteristics for PV panel and wind turbine.