Path loss prediction for air-to-ground communication links via scenario transfer technology

Path loss (PL) is a significant channel parameter for the link budget in unmanned aerial vehicle-aided communications. This study introduces an innovative neural network model to estimate PL for air-to-ground communication links. Utilizing the geometric characteristics of varied physical environments, the model accurately predicts PL in diverse communication scenarios. A back-propagation neural network technique is introduced for extrapolating PL under both line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight conditions. A dataset acquisition strategy, comprising scenario reconstruction and advanced ray-tracing techniques, is employed to foster the model’s training and evaluation. Finally, the proposed model is fully trained in diverse communication scenarios, and then used to predict the PLs in a new communication scenario generated by the International Telecommunication Union standard at 28 GHz. The results demonstrate that the extrapolated PLs of the proposed model are well consistent with the reference results. As existing PL models and standard PL models aim at several specifically defined scenarios, the proposed model can predict the PLs in some undefined and unknown scenarios.