Deployment Algorithms of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Base Stations for Connected Backbone Networks and Maximal Coverage

In emergency or temporary communication scenarios, deploying unmanned aerial vehicle base stations (UAV-BSs) to provide access for ground terminals is a potential networking solution. Due to the diversity of application scenarios, the deployment of UAV-BSs is a primary and open issue, and especially, it is a challenging problem for UAV-BSs to maximize coverage and maintain a self-organizing connected backbone network. In this paper, we propose a maximum coverage (Max-Cover) model, which is a nonlinear constrained optimization model. Considering a certain number of UAV-BSs, backbone network connectivity and co-channel interference, the deployment of these UAV-BSs is optimized to cover the maximum number of ground terminals by Max-Cover model. Max-Cover model is transformed into an unconstrained 0-1 nonlinear programming problem through penalty function, and then solved based on genetic algorithm.