Analyzing Packet Reception Ratio in UAV-to-UAV Communication Systems in a Realistic Urban Area via Stochastic Simulation

This paper analyzes the packet reception ratio (PRR) in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-to-UAV communications (U2U) in a realistic urban environment considering 3D blockage effects by buildings and interference from other UAVs. Buildings are generated based on real-world data, leading to mixed and non-homogeneous building profiles beyond the assumptions of existing mathematical models. To this end, we use stochastic simulations to analyze the PRR dynamics and the trade-off in the line-of-sight (LoS) conditions for the communication and interference links under realistic blockage effects. Our findings have important implications for U2U deployment in future smart cities. In particular, the simulation results reveal the importance of incorporating real-world building data and performing a joint analysis on the number of UAVs and their operating height range for different sub-regions with varying building profiles.