Empirical Line-of-Sight Probability Modeling for UAVs in Random Urban Layouts

Accurate Probability of Line-of-Sight <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(P_{\text{LoS}})$</tex> modeling is important in evaluating the performance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based communication systems in urban environments, where real-time communication and low latency are often major requirements. Existing <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$P_{L o S}$</tex> models often rely on simplified Manhattan grid layouts using International Telecommunication Union (ITU)-defined builtup parameters, which may not reflect the randomness of real cities. Therefore, this paper introduces the Urban Line-ofSight Simulator (ULS) to model <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$P_{\text{LoS}}$</tex> for three random city layouts with varying building sizes and shapes constructed using ITU built-up parameters. Based on the ULS simulated data, we obtained the empirical <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$P_{L o S}$</tex> for four standard urban environments across three different city layouts. Finally, we analyze how well Manhattan grid-based models replicate <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$P_{L o S}$</tex> results from random and real-world layouts, providing insights into their applicability for time-critical communication systems in urban IoT networks.