Drone Charging Stations Deployment in Rural Areas for Better Wireless Coverage: Challenges and Solutions
Type
ArticleKAUST Department
Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Science and Engineering (CEMSE) DivisionElectrical and Computer Engineering Program
Date
2022-05-11Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/676858
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
While fifth-generation (5G) cellular is meant to deliver gigabit peak data speeds, low latency, and connection to billions of devices, and 6G is already on the way, half of the world population living in rural areas are still facing challenges connecting to the internet. Compared to urban areas, users in rural areas are greatly impacted by low income, high cost of backhaul connectivity, limited resources, extreme weather, and natural geographical limitations. Therefore, how to connect the rural areas and the difficulties of providing connectivity draw great attention. This article first provides a brief discussion about existing technologies and strategies for enhancing the network coverage in rural areas, and their advantages, limitations, and cost. Next, we mainly focus on the UAV-assisted network in resource-limited regions. Considering the limitation of the onboard battery of UAVs and the electricity supply scarcity in some rural regions, we investigate the possibility and performance enhancement of the deployment of renewable energy (RE) charging stations. We outline three practical scenarios, and use simulation results to demonstrate that RE charging stations can be a possible solution to address the limited onboard battery of UAVs in rural areas, especially when they can harvest and store enough energy. Finally, future works and challenges are discussed.Citation
Qin, Y., Kishk, M. A., & Alouini, M.-S. (2022). Drone Charging Stations Deployment in Rural Areas for Better Wireless Coverage: Challenges and Solutions. IEEE Internet of Things Magazine, 5(1), 148–153. https://doi.org/10.1109/iotm.001.2100083Journal
IEEE Internet of Things MagazinearXiv
2110.01459Additional Links
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9773146/ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1109/iotm.001.2100083