Line of Sight Probability Prediction for UAV Communication

Abstract

This paper presents an accurate approach to predict the probability of line-of-sight for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications. We present a new numerical approach to calculate the probability of line-of-sight as a function of UAV height and distance to a ground based receiver, using a two- dimensional model of building and UAV locations. We use this numerical approach to calculate the probability of line-of-sight as a function of elevation angle. We also provide closed-form formulas for the probability of LoS as a function of elevation angle. We show that our approaches predict the probability of line-of-sight more accurately than the existing approaches.