Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Propagation Datalink Tool Based on a Hybrid Multiscale Modeling

Abstract

This article presents a hybrid computational method to address the datalink characteristics of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) relay. It uses the 3D far-field gain data from the antennas (UAV and ground station), separately computed or based on available measurements as inputs, and then applies the 2-Ray propagation model, taking into consideration the ground permittivity and the respective antenna heights. By doing so, different numerical approaches cover the two different physical scales. Since the installed antennas (i.e. antennas considered placed on the UAV fuselage) performances are considered, a higher reliability can be achieved with the covered procedure, at lower costs when compared to field measurements. Results for different example scenarios are presented and discussed.