Over-the-City UAVs Swarm Communications Channel Model

The use of UAVs swarm based on drones for various applications is a rapidly growing research field for the smart city. Knowledge of the wireless propagation channel is crucial for designing an efficient communication system and for evaluating its performance. This contribution is focused on LOS/NLOS links between UAVs in the swarm for flight altitudes close to building rooftops. On the one hand LOS conditions are not always dominant or even present in this scenario, and on the other hand there is no complete building blockage. Hence, it is necessary to consider the presence of multipath phenomena reflection and diffraction from building rooftops. This paper describes ray tracing simulations which were performed in order to estimate the contribution of multipath components and to develop a channel model for UAVs swarm communications links.