Analysis of Propagation Characteristics in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) System

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has gained great attention to the spread of communication in civilian and military applications. UAV communication channel has its own characteristics compared to cellular and satellite systems, which are widely used. Thus, an accurate channel characterization is very important to optimize the performance and design of an efficient UAV communication system. However, several challenges exist in UAV channel modeling. For example, channel propagation characteristics of UAVs are still less explored. Therefore, this research discusses the propagation characteristics of UAV communication systems. Due to the limitation of the measurement tools, the propagation characteristics identified in this research was the pathloss coefficient value and optimum height based on the value of Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) measurement results at different distance and heights. The link communication used 433 MHz telemetry. The results of pathloss coefficient at heights of 10 m, 20 m, and 30 m are 1.56 m, 1.77 m, and 1.99 m. While the results of the optimum height of 10 m, 20 m, and 30 m are 1.39 m, 1.32 m, and 1.47 m.